'Making History' exhibition highlights
The exhibits featured here were among the 179 objects and illustrations making up the special exhibition, Making History: Antiquaries in Britain 1707-2007, recently held at the Royal Academy, London, as part of the Society's Tercentenary celebrations.
Humfrey Wanley, portrait by Thomas Hill (c 1661–1734?), 1711, oil on canvas
Society of Antiquaries of London, LDSAL 309
A pioneer in the study of palaeography
and Anglo-Saxon, Humfrey Wanley
(1672–1726) was one of the three
founding members of the Society of
Antiquaries of London in 1707. This
portrait shows Wanley holding open
his Book of Specimens in which he has
copied a page from an early Greek
Gospel, which has text in the shape
of a cross.
Ballot box, eighteenth century, mahogany with
brass handles and ivory labels
Society of Antiquaries of London
Probably acquired in 1784, this ballot
box is an early example of those still
used at Society elections, although
postal and online voting are also used
today. The circular opening of the
box enables a voter to insert a hand
and drop a cork ball into either the
'yea' or 'no' partition. Failure to be elected
is known as being ‘blackballed’.
The
odyssey of the Society’s adventures in collecting takes off with a
fabulous gathering of portraits of two Saxon kings, Henry VI (1520),
Edward IV and Richard III (both 1510), Mary I (1554) and Henry VIII.
Alongside is a thick tome – an inventory of the latter king’s
possessions, which included four wedding rings ('no doubt in case of
emergency,' quips David Starkey).
Mary I, portrait by Hans Eworth (c 1520–1574), 1554,
oil on oak panels
Society of Antiquaries of London, LDSAL 336
This portrait of Mary I, Queen of
England from 1553 to 1557, was
painted around Mary's 38th birthday
and finished before she was married
in July 1554 to the Catholic Philip
(later King Philip II) of Spain. Mary
wears three conspicuous items of
jewellery: a cross, a brooch with a
large pearl pendant and a reliquary
of the four Evangelists which hangs
from her waist.
Late Bronze Age shield from Beith, Ayrshire , c 1300–1100 BC, bronze
Society of Antiquaries of London, LDSAL 80
This impressive shield was discovered
during peat extraction on a farm in
Ayrshire, Scotland, in c 1779. It was
found arranged in a ring with five or
six others, but only this example is
known to have survived. The shield
is identified as a ‘Yetholm’ type by
its style. The thinness of the bronze
suggests that its use may have been
ceremonial.
Michael Glover, The Independent
Medieval-style jewel casket belonging to Jane Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) and Elizabeth Siddal (1829–1862), c 1859, wood bound with studded iron bands
Society of Antiquaries of London, Kelmscott Manor 202
The Pre-Raphaelite design of this casket is typical of the work of Philip
Webb. The panels were painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his wife
Lizzie Siddal. At least one of the paintings appears to have been copied
from a fifteenth-century manuscript. The casket belonged to Jane Burden,
William Morris’s wife, and was possibly given on her marriage in 1859.
The ‘Acanthus and Vine’ Tapestry, William Morris (1834–1896), c 1879, woven wool, with some silk, on a cotton warp
Society of Antiquaries of London, Kelmscott Manor 032
This tapestry was William Morris’s first attempt at weaving. The design
and craftsmanship take inspiration from sixteenth- and seventeenth-
century French and Flemish verdure tapestries. According to his diary
Morris took 516 hours and 30 minutes to complete the work using
a traditional vertical loom. Uneven tension and variation in the weave
created some distortion, and Morris subsequently nicknamed the tapestry
‘cabbage and vine’.
The imposing but eccentric collection includes Tudor royal portraits described by David Starkey, an expert on the history of the period, as 'staggering'; a 15th-century genealogical scroll prepared for Henry VI, anxious to establish his claim to the English throne, tracing his ancestry back to Adam and Eve; a mummified 'finger of a Frenchman' collected as a holiday souvenir by a priest from Canterbury cathedral who turned down the offer of a mummified baby, and a lock of the hair of Edward IV, collected when his tomb in the chapel at Windsor Castle was opened after 400 years.
Maev Kennedy, The Guardian
Roll Chronicle, mid-fifteenth century with additions of c 1665, illumination with coloured inks and tint on vellum rolls
Society of Antiquaries of London, MS 501
This genealogical roll was compiled
to show the descent of Henry VI
(1422–1471) from Adam and Eve.
It was later carried forward to the
reign of Charles II. The section
shown goes back to the Creation
from the beginning of the Christian
era. Rolls such as these illustrate the
desire to be associated with famous
figures of the remote past but are
notoriously imaginative.