A pocket watch that belonged to Robert Burns – and contained a love note from his wife, Jean Armour – fetched nearly £40,000 at auction yesterday.
The silver-cased timepiece, made in London, contained a paper note featuring lovebirds sitting on a heart and featuring the couple’s initials, R and J, in ink.
Its rear cover was inscribed “RobT Burns, Mauchline, 1786”.
Burns was 27 and Jean was just 19 at the time, but together they would have nine children, though only three survived to adulthood.
The pocket watch was expected to make £1,500 to £2,500 at Lyon and Turnbull’s auction in Edinburgh – but sold for £39,650.
Auction house spokes- man Philip Gregory said: “Burns is the greatest Scottish poet and Jean Armour is his most famous love.
“Despite his famous promiscuity, Jean remained his true love to the end of his days.”
Burns’s love for Jean was the subject of many of his poems.
The couple met on a drying green at Mauchline, Ayrshire and they later “fell acquainted” at a dance.
The poet later wrote: “There’s not a bonnie flower that springs; By fountain, shaw or green; There’s not a bonnie bird that sings, but reminds me o’ my Jean.”
By the time Burns’s first child, Elizabeth Paton Burns, was born to Elizabeth Paton on 22 May, 1785, he and Jean were in a relationship and by the end of the year she was pregnant with his child.
The couple were not yet married and Jean’s horrified father removed her to Paisley to save the family embarrassment, forbidding her from seeing Burns again.
Burns made a second attempt at marrying Jean that year and, now he was a relatively famous and successful poet, Jean’s father’s view miraculously turned in his favour.
The pair were married and the last of their children was born on the day of his funeral, in July 1796.
Jean outlived Burns by 38 years, long enough to see his reputation become one of international acclaim.