PEER’S STOLEN CHINA

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 5

PEER’S STOLEN CHINA

RECOVERY IN HAYSTACK. RARE PORCELAIN FIGURES. It has been revealed that six rare porcelain figures and several pieces of silver stolen from Lord Fisher’s home at Kilverstone Hall, Thetford, Norfolk, were found several months ago. Their recovery was kept secret in the hope that further information might reach the police leading to the return of the Stars and Orders and miniature medals of Lord Fisher’s father, the late Admiral of the Fleet, which were stolen at the same time. The theft occurred on the night of November 30, 1933. The porcelain figures, which have been restored, are worth over £lO,OOO. The value of the medals and decorations had been assessed at £l, Lord Fisher stated after the. burglary, but they were invaluable to him for the memories they recalled. He issued an appeal for their return. About five months after the burglary a repeated search was made under a small haystack on the lawn at Kilverstone. Under the hay and wet leaves were found all the missing porcelain figures, two of them broken, and most of the silver, which was untarnished. This haystack had been examined at the time of the burglary, and early in the spring about one-third of it had been removed to the stables. On neither occasion were any of the stolen articles discovered; but when found they were distributed evenly over the whole length of what then remained of the stack. A short while before this two boys recovered from a stream three miles away two minor articles of silver that had formed part of the burglary. One of the porcelain figures is a famous piece of early Dresden, two Tyrolese lancers, made by Eberlein in 1735. The only other example in existence is in Dresden Museum.

The decorations which are still missing are the late Lord Fisher's Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Grand Gordon of the Legion of Honour, and Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun of Japan.