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Auction: 26009 - World & British Banknotes featuring the Jersey Collection Part II
Lot: 80

Royal Bank of Scotland, [front & back proof] presentation composite proof on card for the proposed £5, 1966,

Presentation David Dale issue,
De La Rue, production reference BN/18-7-1966/309 (reverse) and corresponding obverse BN/18-7-1966/310.

Introduced in 1966, the Royal Bank of Scotland's David Dale series marked a significant departure from earlier Scottish banknote design. Rather than depicting the reigning monarch, the Bank chose David Dale (1739-1806), the Glasgow industrialist and philanthropist who had also served as Joint Agent of its Glasgow office. The series established a new visual identity for the Bank and remained in circulation, with modifications, for many years.

The present presentation composite proof records an earlier stage in the development of the series. Although immediately recognisable as the David Dale issue, both the face and reverse differ in several respects from the design ultimately adopted for circulation. The portrait of Dale is arranged differently from the issued design, while the reverse substitutes the familiar view of the Royal Bank of Scotland's Head Office with a panoramic prospect of Edinburgh. An engraver's annotation identifies the scene as "City of Edinburgh, home of the Royal Bank, as seen from nearby Salisbury Crags".

This proposed reverse reflects a long-established artistic tradition of portraying Edinburgh from the high ground to the south-east of the city. From the seventeenth century onwards, artists repeatedly chose this vantagepoint to depict the capital as a unified civic landscape, embracing Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile and the Palace of Holyroodhouse within a single composition. Rather than concentrating upon the Bank's headquarters alone, the design presents the institution within the wider setting of the city from which it emerged, offering a broader interpretation of the Bank's identity during the development of the new series.

Presentation composite proofs of this nature were produced during the evolution of new banknote designs and differ fundamentally from the finished proofs and specimens prepared from approved artwork. Created for internal review, they record alternative compositions and design decisions before production commenced, many of which were subsequently abandoned. As working material, relatively few survived beyond the archives of the printer.

The present proof therefore documents an early stage in the development of one of the Royal Bank of Scotland's best-known twentieth-century banknote issues. Preserving an abandoned reverse design together with an alternative arrangement of the obverse, it provides a valuable insight into De La Rue's design process and the evolution of the David Dale series before its final design was settled.


(Pick unlisted), paper components of the design have partially lifted from the mounting card and the proofs display slight curvature otherwise uncirculated, the back proof has detached from the mount, while the front is beginning to separate, presentation folder displays a minor bend and does not fully close, corner wear on presentation folder [front & back proof]

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Estimate
£3,000 to £5,000

Starting price
£2100