Cheapside Jewellery Hoard

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 520, 24 November 1928, Page 26

Cheapside Jewellery Hoard

RUBIES, DIAMONDS, OPALS, PERIDOTS, TOPAZES, AME THYSTS, EMERALDS AND GARNETS FOUND UNDER OLD LONDON BUILDING

ST is sixteen years since a box of valuable jewels was found during the excavations for the building of Wakefield House, Cheapside. In bulk alone it exceeds any other collection of the kind in Great Britain; and it represents an unusually high order of craftsmanship. An interesting little book descriptive of the “find” just issued by Mr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler, Keeper and Secretary of the London Museum, Lancaster House, recalls a very remarkable story. It was not until a year or more after the discovery that the Corporation became aware that jewels found in the City were being exhibited at the ■ London Museum. It seems that they were found by workmen engaged in excavating the site for Wakefield House, and that they were sold to a collector interested in the London Museum. The men obtained sufficient money, apparently, to prevent them from carrying on their work with the pickaxe for some time. The jewels having been found within the “one square mile.“ the Lord Mayor claimed them as treasure trove, as he was entitled to do by ancient custom and charter right. A correspondence took place between the then City Solicitor (Sir Homewood Crawford) and Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Lewis Harcourt, M.P., who was a trustee of the London Museum and British Museum. Mr. Harcourt said the element of treasure trove in the “find” was extremely small, consisting only of the gold setting of the jewels and the gold base of some of the enamels, but any attempt to separate the two would result in the destruction of the artistic and antiquarian merits of the collection. He would, however, willingly agree to the suggestion that some of the jewels should be deposited in the Guildhall Museum and some in the London Museum, a label being attached to the case in each museum stating that the collection was" the joint gift of the Corporation tf London and himself. Mr. Harcourt admitted that he had not realised the City’s ancient rights of treasure trove. Some of the gems are of classical or Byzantine origin, and not any of y. them are supposed to be of a later t'~'

doubt that these treasures formed part of a jeweller’s stock, but there are differences of opinion as to the time when they were “buried,” and also as to the motive which prompted the “burial.” It was supposed that the box of precious jewels had been hidden about the time of the Great Fire, but it seems more than probable that It was soon after the year 1600. The City’s portion of the treasure was first exhibited in the Guildhall Museum in 1916, Sir Charles Wakefield, upon the site of whose premises the treasure was found, being Lord Mayor. The collection includes an oval watch with emerald face, and a striker of the period 15S0, numerous gold rings and chains set with amethysts, sapphires and diamonds; enamelled and jewelled crosses, a crystal fragment, gold pendants—one being in the form of a cross, enamelled at the back, and set with light coloured rose-cut amethysts—fanholders, a gold hairpin iu the form of a shepherd's crook, and numerous other objects of interest. A much smaller number of articles forming part of the hoard are exhibited at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Mr. Mortimer Wheeler has produced a beautifully coloured illustrated catalogue of the exhibits, some of the plates being in colours. . “The hoard,” says the writer, “may he said to constitute a new landmark in the history of the jeweller’s craft. The materials used—emerald from Columbia, topaz and Amazonstone, probably from Brazil, chrysoberyl cat’s-eves, spinel and iolite from Ceylon, Indian rubies and diamonds, lapis lazuli and turquoises from Persia, peridots from St. John’s Island in the Red Sea, as well as amethysts, garnets, opals and other stones from nearer home—show a surprisingly wide range, and reflect the precocious expansiveness of European commerce at the beginning of the 17th century.” The articles at the London Museum are exhibited in a large case, the beautiful and sparkling chains forming a fine background to the smaller but no less interesting objects. One of these is a watch set in a single large emerald of hexagonal shape. The loop is also set with small emeralds and with white enamel, and the face is enamelled green. This, like the watch at the Guildhall, has been dated by Mr.