Lead Processing at Leadhills: Weighing the Lead Bars

Taken together, Allan’s pictures take the viewer through the dressing of the crude ore by young boys to its sieving, washing and smelting. In the final stage, finished lead ingots are weighed under the eye of the owner’s foremen. Focusing on the wider estate as well as scenes of everyday life, the paintings commissioned by the Earl of Hopetoun projected a paternalistic image of good management.