Gifts and memorabilia gathered by former first minister Alex Salmond during his time in office have raised more than £42,000 for charity.
More than 300 lots were auctioned in Glasgow in aid of St Jerome's orphanage, Clic Sargent and the Scottish Youth Theatre.
It is the first time a departing first minister has donated his official gifts and memorabilia to charity - with his trademark saltire tie fetching £1,600 alone.
Speaking after the sale at Great Western Auctions, Mr Salmond said: "I am delighted that the sale of these items have raised an incredible £42,100 for children's charities and even more will be added to this total when further artworks are sold at the Fine Art Auction early next year.
"Over seven and a half years as first minister I was presented with many wonderful gifts - from novelty items, like soft toys or a Zulu spear, to high-value items like artwork, Cartier cufflinks or rare stamps.
"These were gifts to me as Scotland's first minister and so, on leaving office, I am delighted that their proceeds from this Christmas auction will now benefit three great Scottish charities.
"I was amazed that my saltire tie alone raised a staggering £1,600.
"Instead of packing these items away when we left Bute House, Moira and I were keen that other people be able to treasure them and raise money for charity in the process. There was something for everyone here today, for every pocket, and I hope those people who have bought one of these mementos will cherish and enjoy them as much we did.
"I want to thank Anita Manning and her team at Great Western Auctions in Glasgow for the incredible job they have done, at no cost, in cataloguing and auctioning these lots."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article