Images(2)

Duke of Gordon

DesignerDesigned by Thomas Campbell (London, England, 1790 - 1858)

Subject George Gordon 5th Duke of Gordon (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1770 - 1836)

ManufacturerManufactured by Macdonald and Leslie (1839 - 1863)

Date1842

Object NameSculpture

ClassificationsSculptures

CopyrightOut of copyright

Object numberABDCC001073

Keywords

Slavery-Building

About MeThe impressive statue of George, 5th and last Duke of Gordon, stands in Golden Square and dates from 1842. The piece was designed by the London sculptor, Thomas Campbell (1790-1858) who is responsible for sculptural pieces such as 'Lord George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck' (1848) positioned in Cavendish Square, London. However it was the Aberdeen granite sculptors MacDonald and Leslie who executed the piece using a model from Campbell as their design and Granite from neighbouring Peterhead quarries as their medium.

The monument stands upon a pedestal of Red Granite from Stiringhill Quarries and was the first statue in Britain to be made completely from one block of Granite.

Originally erected in Castlegate, the statue was moved to its present position, in Golden Square, in 1952.

The standing figure of the fifth and last Duke of Gordon is presented in military dress; a large cloak worn over his left shoulder and wrapped toga-like around his body. His right arm is held diagonally across the body so that his hand rests with his left hand on the hilt of a large sheathed sabre. His left food rests on a piece of military ordnance (possibly a mortar).

The inscription upon the plinth reads:
George
Fifth and Last
Duke of Gordon
Born 1770
Died 1836
Re-framing the Collection

History and Legacy of Enslavement in Aberdeen

George Gordon was recorded as having been at first listed ‘adverse’ to the abolition of chattel slavery and was then later transferred to ‘doubtful’.