As I am told by every taxi driver who ever gives me a lift home, Edinburgh’s Fountainbridge area is famous for being the childhood home of Sean Connery. But, you may not know that he was employed by Edinburgh College of Art as an artist’s model from February to May 1952 – we’ve even got his contract in the ECA Archive, signed when he was still known as Thomas Connery.

Richard Demarco, who remembers painting him as a student, described the future Bond as “too beautiful for words, a virtual Adonis.”

Unfortunately only one painting exists in the Art Collection from Big Tam’s brief stint as a model, painted by jazz musician Al Fairweather when he was a student. Feast your eyes on this:

The hair! The pouch! That elegant and alluring pose. No wonder he was cast as James Bond just a few years later.

Anna Hawkins