![Cheapside 1909](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Cheapside_1909.jpg)
The Cheapside Hoard is a
hoard
A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...
of jewellery from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, discovered in 1912 by workmen using a pickaxe to excavate in a cellar at 30–32
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where ...
in London, on the corner with Friday Street. They found a buried wooden box containing more than 400 pieces of
Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
and
Jacobean jewellery, including rings, brooches and chains, with bright coloured gemstones and enamelled gold settings, together with
toadstone
The toadstone, also known as bufonite (from Latin , "toad"), is a mythical stone or gem that was thought to be found in the head of a toad. It was supposed to be an antidote to poison and in this it is like batrachite, supposedly formed in the ...
s,
cameos, scent bottles, fan holders, crystal tankards and a salt cellar.
Most of the hoard is now in the
Museum of London
The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...
, with some items held by the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
.
Location
The location where the hoard was found is thought to have been the premises of a
Jacobean goldsmith
A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...
, and the hoard is generally considered to have been a jeweller's working stock buried in the cellar during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. Cheapside was at the commercial heart of the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, with shops for the sale of luxury goods, including many
goldsmith
A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...
s. The location, a row of houses on the south of Cheapside, to the east of
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
and to the west of
St Mary-le-Bow
The Church of St Mary-le-Bow is a Church of England parish church in the City of London. Located on Cheapside, one of the city's oldest and most important thoroughfares, the church was founded in 1080 by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rebui ...
, was owned by the
Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Londo ...
. Known as Goldsmith's Row, it was formerly the centre of the manufacture and sale of gold and jewellery in medieval London.
Kris Lane has speculated that the hoard may have been brought back to England from the
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...
in 1631, having been assembled by a Dutch jeweller named Gerald Polman. He died on the journey, and his chest of jewels was taken by the carpenter's mate on the ship, Christopher Adams. Adams was eventually forced to surrender the box and its contents to
Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey
Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey KG (16 December 1582 – 24 October 1642) was an English peer, soldier and courtier.
Early life
Robert Bertie was the son of Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (b. 12 October 1555 – d. 25 Ju ...
, Treasurer of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
. Lindsey was involved in litigation with Polman's Dutch heirs, but he died at the
Battle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill (or Edge Hill) was a pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642.
All attempts at constitutional compromise between K ...
in 1642.
Goldsmith's Row was destroyed in the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...
in 1666. The buildings were reconstructed by the Goldsmiths' Company in 1667, and were redeveloped in 1912. The hoard was discovered by workmen in the remains of an old cellar beneath the building. The site is now beneath
One New Change
One New Change is a major office and retail development in the City of London. It comprises of floor space, including of retail space and of office space and is the only large shopping centre in the City of London, the historic nucleus and mo ...
.
Hoard
The hoard demonstrates the international trade in luxury goods in the period, including gemstones from sources across South America, Asia and Europe:
emerald
Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991) ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, p ...
from Colombia,
topaz
Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al Si O( F, OH). It is used as a gemstone in jewelry and other adornments. Common topaz in its natural state is colorless, though trace element impurities can mak ...
and
amazonite
Amazonite, also known as Amazonstone, is a green tectosilicate mineral, a variety of the potassium feldspar called microcline. Its chemical formula is KAlSi3O8, which is polymorphic to orthoclase.
Its name is taken from that of the Amazon River, ...
from Brazil;
spinel
Spinel () is the magnesium/aluminium member of the larger spinel group of minerals. It has the formula in the cubic crystal system. Its name comes from the Latin word , which means ''spine'' in reference to its pointed crystals.
Properties
S ...
,
iolite
Cordierite (mineralogy) or iolite (gemology) is a magnesium iron aluminium cyclosilicate. Iron is almost always present and a solid solution exists between Mg-rich cordierite and Fe-rich sekaninaite with a series formula: to . A high-temperat ...
and
chrysoberyl
The mineral or gemstone chrysoberyl is an aluminate of beryllium with the formula Be Al2 O4. The name chrysoberyl is derived from the Greek words χρυσός ''chrysos'' and βήρυλλος ''beryllos'', meaning "a gold-white spar". Despite ...
from
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, Indian
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
, Burmese
ruby
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sa ...
, Afghan
lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of yea ...
, pearls from
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
,
peridot
Peridot ( /ˈpɛr.ɪˌdɒt, -ˌdoʊ/ ''PERR-ih-dot, -doh''), sometimes called chrysolite, is a deep yellowish-green transparent variety of olivine. Peridot is one of the few gemstones that only occurs in one color.
Peridot can be found in ...
from the Red Sea;
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
n and Hungarian
opal
Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms ...
,
garnet
Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.
All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different s ...
and
amethyst
Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz. The name comes from the Koine Greek αμέθυστος ''amethystos'' from α- ''a-'', "not" and μεθύσκω (Ancient Greek) / μεθώ (Modern Greek), "intoxicate", a reference to the belief that t ...
. Relatively few pearls have survived in good condition after being buried for approximately 350 years.
Large stones were frequently set in box-bezels on enamelled rings. Most of the gemstones are
cabochon
A cabochon (; ) is a gemstone that has been shaped and polished, as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex (rounded) obverse with a flat reverse. Cabochon was the default method of preparing gemstones before gemstone cuttin ...
cut, but there are a few with more modern
facet
Facets () are flat faces on geometric shapes. The organization of naturally occurring facets was key to early developments in crystallography, since they reflect the underlying symmetry of the crystal structure. Gemstones commonly have facets cut ...
ed
cuts, including
rose cut and
star cut. A particularly large Colombian emerald, originally the size of an apple, had been hollowed out to accommodate a
Swiss watch
Swiss made is a label or marking used to indicate that a product was made on the territory of Switzerland. It is also a geographical indication protected under different Swiss and international laws and treaties. According to the Swiss Federal Ac ...
movement dated to around 1600, signed by G. Ferlite.
The items include a Byzantine
gemstone cameo, a cameo of
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
, an emerald parrot, and some fake gemstones made of carved and dyed
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
. A small red
intaglio stone seal bears the arms of
William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford
William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, FRS (30 November 1614 – 29 December 1680) was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and his wife, the former Alethea Talbot. A Fellow of the Royal Society from 1665, he was a Royalist ...
, dating the burial of the hoard between his ennoblement in November 1640 and the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...
in September 1666, which destroyed the buildings above. Most of the gold is the "Paris touch" standard of 19.2
carats (80 per cent pure).
London Museum
The workmen who discovered the hoard sold items to a man they knew as "Stoney Jack", the antiques dealer and pawnshop owner George Fabian Lawrence, who frequently paid labourers cash for interesting finds from London building sites.
He was appointed by
Guildhall Museum to seek out new items for its collection and became Inspector of Excavations for the nascent
London Museum in 1911.
The Goldsmiths' Company did not assert their ownership of the finds, and no
treasure trove
A treasure trove is an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the hei ...
inquest was held.
Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt
Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt (born Reginald Vernon Harcourt; 31 January 1863 – 24 February 1922), was a British Liberal Party politician who held the Cabinet post of Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1910 to 1915. Lor ...
provided the funds for the London Museum to purchase most of the Cheapside Hoard, though a few pieces went to the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and the Guildhall Museum, and one gold and enamel chain was purchased by the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
. The finds were exhibited at the London Museum in Kensington in 1914, to great acclaim. The collections of the Guildhall Museum and the London Museum came together when they merged to form the Museum of London in 1975.
The entire hoard was displayed together for the first time in more than 100 years at the
Museum of London
The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...
, from October 2013 to April 2014.
Notes
External links
The Cheapside Hoard: London’s Lost Jewels, Museum of London exhibition 11 October 2013 – 27 April 2014
The Cheapside hoard Museum of London image
Cheapside Hoard of 17th-century jewels set to dazzle at Museum of London The Guardian, 4 June 2013
The Independent, 5 June 2013
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20081205093857/http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/lbl/pages/toursCollectors2.asp Biography of George Fabian Lawrence (1861–1939) Museum of London
Objects from the Cheapside Hoard British Museum
Chain Victoria and Albert Museum
Divers riche and costlye jewels...the Cheapside Hoard Goldsmiths Company
The Cheapside Hoard: Glittering haul The Economist, 12 October 2013
Cheapside Hoard of treasure found in London a century ago goes on show The Guardian, 10 October 2013
In pictures: The Cheapside Hoard BBC News, 10 October 2013
The Financial Times, 11 October 2013
The Cheapside Hoard: London's Lost Jewels artfund.org
The Telegraph, 4 October 2013
* ''The Cheapside Hoard: London's Lost Jewels'', Hazel Forsyth, Museum of London, {{ISBN, 978-1-78130-020-6
Hoards of jewellery
Treasure troves in England
1912 in London
Collections of the Museum of London
Prehistory and Europe objects in the British Museum
Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1912 archaeological discoveries