MUSEUM TREASURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19144, 9 October 1925, Page 12

MUSEUM TREASURES.

AN AMERICAN BEQUEST. VALUABLE HISTORICAL RELICS. A romantic story of an endowment made by a wealthy American to the British public lies behind the prosaic registration of the latest volume issued by the directors of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Francis Reubell Bryan, of Boston, United States, long resident in Paris, had at intervals extending over many years made gifts to the museum—French oil and water colours, prints, drawings and clocks. He died in 1002 having £II.OOO to the museum for the purchase of objects of exceptional interest and importance, and to date 25 objects have been acquired. As Mr. Eric Maclagan, in a prefatory note to tho volume points out,, "a memorial to the founder is set up which will grow year by year in value and importance to commemorate his act of public benevolence." Many interesting features have thus been added to the collection known as ''th-j Bryan Bequest." There are five fragments of dyed linen 15 centuries old, some of the earliest known examples of the printed textile. A piece of old English silver known as "The Moody Salt" is another purchase, while there is a Cromwell mazer bowl, a favourite drinking vessel of the period. Another very fine item is a full suit of Japanese gold-laquered armour made by six famous smiths of a Japanese school working between 1230 and 1570. ''The Danny Jewel" is a pendant jewel formed from a half-section of narwhal's tusk, mounted in enamelled gold and suspended by three gold chains from n rins It was used as a talisman and made in the Elizabethan period. Lovely Eastern vases and lacquer work are among the other things acquired under the bequest, arid of peculiar interest is a crozier bead of an Abbot of Hyde. This was dug up about 1788 in excavating foundations for the Bridewell Prison on the site of Hyde Abbey, Winchester.