Square ceramic coaster with artwork Aerial View of Edinburgh from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Collection, by Alfred G Buckham (1879 - 1956)

Buckham had crashed nine times before he was discharged from the Royal Naval Air Service as a hundred per cent disabled. Continuing to indulge his passion for aerial photography, he wrote that "If one's right leg is tied to the seat with a scarf or a piece of rope, it is possible to work in perfect security". Presumably these were the perilous conditions in which the photographer took this dazzling picture of Edinburgh.

© Courtesy of Richard and John Buckham