Matthew Auchinleck or Matho Auchlek was a Scottish goldsmith who worked for James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor.
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Auchinleck, and his father "Matho Auchinlek" the elder, were put in charge of the mint by James IV and sent in their accounts in April 1507.[1] John Auchlek, a relation, was also a goldsmith working for the court. Their business was in Stirling, and they set up a shop and workshop in Edinburgh called a "buith" in July 1503.[2]
In 1508 Auchlek made a silver fitting for distillation equipment used by the king's alchemist Alexander Ogilvy at Stirling Castle. The piece was described in Scots as a "bos hed to ane stellatour of silvir". The alchemists had a furnace at the castle and were trying to make the fifth element known as "quinta essentia". Auchinleck supplied Ogilvy with materials including "burnt silver".[3]
Auchlek routinely mended and gilded the king's silver tableware and armour, and made jugs, reliquaries, and candlesticks.[4] He repaired the king's crown in 1503 for the royal marriage and was involved in the work of the mint.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ M. Livingstone, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 1488-1529, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 209 no. 1465.
- ^ Accounts of the Treasurer, 1506-1507, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. lxxix, lxxxix, 380.
- ^ Accounts of the Treasurer, 1506-1507, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. 135, 137
- ^ Accounts of the Treasurer, 1506-1507, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), p. 34.
- ^ Robert William Cochran-Patrick, Records of the Coinage of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1876), p. cxxxi.