CHEAPSIDE HOARD

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 83, 19 November 1928, Page 3

CHEAPSIDE HOARD

WAKEFIELD HOUSE JEWELS. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN TREASURES. LONDON. It is sixteen years since a box oi jewels was found during the excavations for the guilding of the Wakefield House, Cheyjpside. In built alone it exceeds any other collection of the kind in Great Britain, and it re'presentjs' mi unusually high, order (of craftsmanship. An interesting little bock descriptive of the "Find" just issued, by Mr. It. !&. Mortimer Wheeler, Keeper and Secretary of the London Museum, Lancaster House, recalls a very remarkable story.

THE CORPORATION'S CLAIM, It was not until a year or more after the. discovery that the Corporation became aware that jewels 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 to prevent them from carrying on their work with the pickaxe for some time. The jewels having he°u found within One Square Mile, the Lord Mayor claimed as treasure trove. a,s be was ent'tled to do by ancient custom and Charter right. .

MR. HARGOJJRT'S OFFER. A corresponde.ncie. took place between the then City Solicitor (Sir Homewood Crawford) and Mr. (afterterwards Viscount) Lewis Harcourt, M.P., who was a trustee of the, London Museum, and British Museum. Mr. Halrcourt said the. element of the. treasure ftrovei in the "find'' l 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 I 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 of London and himself. Mr. Harcourt admitted that he had not realised the City's ancient rights of treasure trove.

THE LION'S} SHARE. As the legal definition of treasure trove extends only to bullion, and, in vi.e.w of all. thq circumstances, ihe Corporation agreed to a compromise, not anticipating, however, that the London Museum would take, the lion's share, on much more than the lion's sha',re, of the precious jewels. Some of the gems are of clasical or Byzantine! origin, and not any of them a,re supposed to be a, later period than Jame.s I. There is little 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 u\so as t° the motive which prompted the "burial.'' It was. supposed that the box'of precious jewels had. been hidden about the time of the. Great I' : re, but it seems more than probable that' it was soon after the year 1.600.

AT THE GUILDHALL. 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 ooll&dtion includes an oval watch with, emerald face, and a striker of the period 1580, 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 will, light coloured rose-cut amethysts—fanholders, a gold h : airpin in the form of a shepherd's crook, and numerous other objecta of interest. A nuich smaller number of articles forming part of the hoard, are exhibited at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

BEAUTIFUL PLATES. Mr. Mortime)r "Wheeler hps produced a beautifully illustrated catalogue of the exhibits, some of the plates being in colours. "The Hoard," says the writer, "may . be. said to constitute a new landmark in the history of the jeweller's craft. The materials used —emerald from Cilumhia, topaz and Amazonstone, probably from Brazil, chrysoberyl eafs-eyes, spinel and iolite from Ceylon. Indian rubies and diamonds, lapis lazuli, and turquoise from Persia, peridot from St. John's Island in the Red Sea, as

well as. ame.thysts, garnets, opals, and other stones from nearer home—show a' surprisingly wide range, and reflect the percuo.'ous expansivenqss of European commerce at the beginning of the. 17t.h century." The Articles at the London Museum are exhibited in a large case., the beautiful and sparkling chain s forming a fine background to the smaller but no less interesting objects. One of the.se is a watch set in a single large emeratd of hexagonal shape. The loop is also set with small emeralds, and with white, enamel, and. the face is enameled green. This, like the watch at the Guildhall, hag be.en dated, by Mr. Percy "Webster, Master of the Clockmakers Company in 1927, the date being 1600. There are a number of interesting hat ornaments, hairpins, pendants, and ear-rings, the last nam-; ed, having come into frequent use after long periods of neglect. Even Charles 1., it is said, wore, an ear-ring I on the scaffold. (