December 1899: The Late Mr W. Craibe Angus – Robert Burns – Robert Louis Stevenson

An obituary on page two of The Nottingham Evening Post, on Wednesday the 13th of December, 1899, reads:

 

“THE LATE MR. W. CRAIBE ANGUS.

 

By the death of Mr. Craibe Angus, of Glasgow, one of the greatest Burns authorities in the country has passed away.

His whole life was devoted to the expert examination of early editions and manuscripts, to the study of paintings,

especially the Dutch school, and to the collection of rare bric-a-brac—all of which gave him a celebrity as an art dealer,

book collector, and general bric-a-brac merchant which extended far beyond Scotland. His salon in Queen-street,

Glasgow, and afterwards in St. Vincent-street and Renfield-street, was the resort of all the notabilities interested in

literature or art who visited the city, and no Burns sale or Burns gathering of importance was complete without the

picturesque figure of this white-haired old gentleman, whose cheery laugh and vigorous step almost belied the 69 years

he bore jauntily.

 

 

MR. CRAIBE ANGUS AND R. L. STEVENSON.

 

Not only was Mr. Angus the correspondent of many of our most eminent literary men, but he was also on terms

of friendship with most of them. He was the friend of Swinburne, of William Morris (for whom in Lonion [sic] he

was often mistaken), of Ruskin, and of Robert Louis Stevenson, and, indeed, it was to Mr. Angus that the latter

confided some details of his intentions as well as his methods of work in the writing of his unfinished novel, ‘Weir

of Hermiston.’.”

 

 

 

The British Newspaper Archive.

 

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, July 2024.