Written by:
Kapil Summan
Editor
And finally… paws off
Reading time: 2 minutes
Written by:
Kapil Summan
Editor
Left: The lord justice general teddy stands resplendent in his ermine-lined robe with its characteristic pattern of hanging black-tipped tails.
Right: Elegance incarnate: The robe of the lord justice-clerk is distinguished by holes in the white cloth, through which her red gown shows – the innovation of a (non-teddy) predecessor.
An incredibly talented employee at the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has made lord justice general and lord justice-clerk teddy bears as gifts for Lord Carloway and Lady Dorrian, both of whom are due to retire from the bench.
Jennifer Findlay, head of library and archive services at SCTS, wowed LinkedIn with the bears, whose robes have been made with meticulous attention to detail. They even bear, no pun intended, an uncanny resemblance to their human counterparts.
Judicial robes first took form in Scotland during the reign of James VI. An act of 1609, before which judges likely wore their civilian clothes, states in its preamble that suitable judicial apparel “breidis in commoun people that reverence and regaird that is dew and propir for men in these places” – and also for senatorial teddy bears (for more on judicial apparel see here). We await with bated breath the shrieval and advocate lines from Ms Findlay, whose wares would not be out of place in the windows of Ede & Ravenscroft.
But readers scrambling to procure their own berobed bear should note that she spent “a mere 100 hours” on each and is therefore unlikely to be taking custom orders.
If she is, however, I’ll take two.
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