I came across this intriguing photograph in the Trove archive:
It is annotated “Statues discovered by workmen in a disused cellar at site for new Scottish Widows’ Fund and Life Assurance Society building in St Andrew’s Square, 1960”.
The Scotsman archive provides further details:
Intrigued, I have now discovered that the sculptures had a fascinating history of relocation [source: Lyon & Turnbull]
In 1832, the Scottish Widows’ Fund and Life Assurance Society commissioned a young John Steell to design his very first major architectural piece. The multi-figure group was carved to physically represent the decorative emblem printed on the society’s insurance policy documents.
1819 Map of St Andrew’s Square [No 5 is annotated as ‘EXCISE OFFICE’ at this time] and this advertisement from 1827 indicates that this is where the Scottish Widows’ Fund was based:
John Steell’s sculpture depicts Providence, who is the divine representation of the ability to make provision, with a cornucopia with fruit and vegetables spilling from it. To her left is a child holding a bulging sheaf of wheat. On the left of the sculpture sits a mourning widow, shawled and seated in a Madonna-like fashion, surrounded by her children who look up at her. On the right of the sculpture is a headstone, signifying the lost husband, with the date AD MDCCCXV (1815) inscribed on it, which was the year of the society’s establishment [source: Lyon & Turnbull].
In 1859 the society’s offices in St Andrew’s Square, Edinburgh, were moved a few doors down. I have not been able to discover why, but the sculpture was then relocated to the society’s Glasgow branch on Buchanan Street.
Victorian photograph: 141 Buchanan Street Glasgow [source: Lyon & Turnbull].
Back in Edinburgh, Scottish Widows had acquired 9 St Andrew Square. In the 1930s they expanded into Nos 10 and 11. By 1956 they decided that they needed more accommodation and called in Basil Spence to design a new building for the site. This new building featured an understated classical rhythm utilizing a grid-like façade of window units, marble slabs, and a polished black granite base. It was during the construction of this new building that the Providence statue was discovered in the basement of No 9 St Andrew’s Square [I have not been able to establish when the statue was removed from the Buchanan Street building in Glasgow].
The sculpture was subsequently gifted to Donald Mackenzie who placed it in his garden, from whence it was sold by Lyon & Turnbull in 2017.
Provenance [Lyon & Turnbull]:
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Scottish Widows’ Fund and Life Assurance Society, 5 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh from 1832
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Removed to Scottish Widows’ office, 141 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, circa 1860
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Removed to 9 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh [date unknown]
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The Late Donald Mackenzie and thence by descent