Collections on the Move

The Society runs an active loans programme, contributing to exhibitions and displays at venues in the UK and across the globe. Here are some of the current and forthcoming exhibitions. 

We welcome requests to lend items from the collection to exhibitions and displays that are open to the general public. To find out more about how to borrow works from our collections, please consult our  how to borrow document (PDF). Our usual notice period is 12 months. 

See where your collections items are being currently and previously shown

  • Current Exhibitions

    William Morris and Art from the Islamic World
    William Morris Gallery, London
    9 November 2024 – 9 March 2025
    KM068 Late 19th century Syrian brass and pewter lidded box
    KM243 19th century Iranian Casket
    KM252 17th century Iranian Bowl
    KM258.1-2 Iranian Incense burner in the form of a peacock (pair)
    KM279 Iranian engraved brass lampstand
    KM281a-b Iranian brass lidded urn
    KM021 Hand-painted Turkish Dish
    KM023 Hand-painted Turkish earthenware dish
    KM025 Hand-painted Turkish earthenware dish
    KM081 13th century framed earthenware tiles (pair)
    KM176 16th century Turkish earthenware tile

  • Recent Exhibitions

    Cheapside: Metropolis et Emporium
    Mercers Company, London
    29  January – 15 December 2024
    NN: Coronation Procession of Edward VI, watercolour by Samuel Hieronymous Grimm, 1785

    Circles Of Stone: Stonehenge And Prehistoric Japan 
    Stonehenge Visitor Centre, Salisbury
    29 Sep 2022 – 29 Sep 2023
    MS 894/01: Gowland, W. Stonehenge, 1901-2

    The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England
    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
    3rd October 2022 – 8th January 2023
    LDSAL 336: Mary I (Hans Eworth)

    William Morris: Art in Everything
    Roubaix La Piscine, Paris
    8 October 2022 – 8 January 2023
    KM298: William Morris’s washstand, 1862

    Portraying the Tudors before Holbein: establishing an oeuvre for Meynnart Wewyck
    Hamilton-Kerr Institute, Cambridge
    27  July – 2 September 2022
    LDSAL 329 Cusped portrait of Henry VII
    LDSAL 320 Arch-topped portrait of Edward IV
    LDSAL 321 Arch-topped portrait of Richard III
    LDSAL 325 Arch-topped portrait of Francis I

    Rossetti’s Portraits
    The Holburne Museum, Bath
    24  September 2021 – 9  January 2022
    KM 091: Blue Silk Dress, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
    KM 203: Water Willow, Charles Fairfax Murray, after Dante Gabriel Rossetti

  • Long-term Loans - The Society also has over 250 items on long-term loan to museums across the UK. Explore a few highlights below.  

    St Bartholomew’s Church, Orford, Suffolk 

    Monumental brass fragment of Roger Sawyer, engraved in c.1580. Photographed prior to re-instatement inside St Bartholomew’s Church in 2014.

    Maker unknown
    Brass
    469 x 180 mm
    LDSAL787

     

     

    Print of the monumental brass fragment of Roger Sawyer, 2014
    Ink on paper
    NN

    In December 2014, the brass plate of Roger Sawyer was reinstated in St Bartholomew’s Church, in its original position. It is now mounted on the floor of the northern chapel in a Purbeck slab in the Chapel of our Lady in the Wall. Sawyer has been reunited with the rest of the Coo Memorial, a brass to Bridget Coo, wife first of Sawyer (died 1580) and after to James Coo, Mayor of Orford. Sawyer has been depicted in civil dress.

    This brass was in the private possession of Rev. J. Fuller, F.S.A. before it was presented to the Society by Mill Stephenson in 1920.

    Related collection objects

    The Society has a large collection of brass rubbings in its Prints and Drawings Collection, search here.

    Find out more

    Mill-Stephenson (1926), No. XV
    Page-Phillips (1999), Monumental Brasses: A Sixteenth Century Workshop, p. 57.
    Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Series II, XXXII, p. 67.
    British Library Add MS 32484, fo. 104 (Rubbing made in 1824, brass gone by 1839).
    William Lack (2015), ‘The Brass to Bridget Coo, 1580, and her two husbands, Roger Sawyer and James Coo (M.S. IX), St. Bartholemew’s, Orford, Suffolk’

    Charnwood Museum 

    Florid cruciform fibula from Rothley Temple, Sixth century AD
    Silver and gold gilt
    155 x 85 mm
    LDSAL99

    This fibula was presented to the Society through Sir Joseph Banks by Thomas Babington of Rothley Temple, Leicestershire on 6 November 1788. The brooch was found with coins (mostly depicting Constantine) and flat circular bronze fibulae on the site of Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, about 2ft below the surface in c.1784.

    Related collection objects 
    LDSAL2020.38.68  Drawing of the Anglo-Saxon bronze cruciform brooch from Leicsestershire by Jacob Schnebbelie, 1788.
    LDSAL2020.38.297  Drawing of the Anglo-Saxon bronze cruciform brooch from Leicsestershire by Jacob Schnebbelie, 1788. 

    Find out more  
    Archaeologia 9 (1789): 370-1. 
    Albert Way, Catalogue of Antiquities, Coins, Pictures, and Miscellaneous Curiosities, in the Possession of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1847 (London: Society of Antiquaries of London, 1847), no. 99. 
    John Nichols, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester 4 vols. (London: John Nichols, 1795-1811), 3: 956-7, illustration (Engraving), figs. 15a and 15b, pl. CXXIX, opp. p. 958. 

    The National Gallery

    Dream of the Virgin, c.1365-1380
    Simone dei Crocifissi
    Egg tempera, gold leaf on wood panel
    565 x 425 mm
    LDSAL1305

    Currently not on display.

     

     

     

    Related collection objects

    LDSAL500: Icon, The Resurrection, painted after 1820 by unknown artist. Tempera on Panel.
    LDSAL1306 Winged figure of St John the Baptist, painted c.1550-1590 by unknown artist. Tempera On Panel.
    Find out more here

    Gloucester Museum

    Roman votive stone shrine depicting Minerva, AD 200
    Found Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire, 1769
    37 cm (H) x 24.1 cm (W) x 0.8 cm (D)
    LDSAL40
    Displayed in the Shrine on the road to Roman Gloucester

     

     

    Related collection objects

    LDSAL 28 Roman inscribed stone votive tablet commemorating the erection of a temple, and other public works, by Maximinus, a soldier of the sixth legion.

    Museum of London

    Legionary soldier Flavius Agricola’s tombstone from the eastern cemetery at the Minories, 3rd-4th century AD
    Slate
    30.5 cm (H) x 35 cm (W) x 3 cm (D)
    LDSAL37
    Currently not on display

    Related collection objects

    LDSAL27: Altar dedicated to Jupiter by Aelius Rufus, Prefect of the fourth cohort of the Livgones (Gaul, now called Langres), 3rd century AD

    LDSAL 28: Roman inscribed stone votive tablet commemorating the erection of a temple, and other public works, by Maximinus, a soldier of the sixth legion.

    Great North Museum: Hancock

    Altar dedicated to the three witches, with L LAMIIS TRIBUS carved on one of its sides, 1st-2nd century AD
    Sandstone
    80.5 (H) x 40.6 (W) x 32.4 cm (D)
    LDSAL 964

     

     

     

     

     

    Items on loan

    Roman altars and votive tablets found in the remains of Tynemouth Castle, two altars dedicated to Mars found at Benwell, red sandstone altar dedicated to Veteres found at Benwell, and an altar dedicated by Julius Pastor to Veteres.
    LDSAL 962 Part of large dedication stone, with Buff sandstone inscription fragment from Jarrow.
    LDSAL 964 Sandstone Altar of 3 witches (Altar of the Three Lamiae).
    LDSAL 27 Altar dedicated to Jupiter by Elius Rufus.
    LDSAL 28 Inscribed Votive Tablet, found in Tynemouth Castle, June 1783. Tablet commemorates the erection of a temple and other public works by Maximinus, a soldier of the sixth legion.
    LDSAL 29 Altar dedicated to Mars.
    LDSAL 30 Altar dedicated to Mars
    LDSAL 31 Altar of Red Sandstone, dedicated to Vetris
    LDSAL 32 Small altar of very coarse frit stone, dedicated to Vetris
    LDSAL 33 Altar dedicated to the goddess Hammia
    LDSAL 34 Altar dedicated by Julius Pastor.
    On display in Hadrian’s Wall Gallery

    Find out more

    Brand, 1789, Brand’s History of Newcastle. Vol. i. 607
    David Gaimster, Sarah McCarthy, and Bernard Nurse, eds., Making History, Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2007), p. 113, no. 76, Illustration, p. 113.

    National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Bronze Age socketed spearhead (LDSAL72a) from Hay on Wye, Powys and medieval brass seal matrix (LDSAL927) from Grace Dieu Abbey, Monmouthshire.

    Related collection objects

    The Society holds a large collection of Bronze Age archaeological artefacts, search here.

    Find out more

    Proceedings of the Shropshire (Salop) Antiquarian or Archaeological Society, Volume IV, plate XVIII (similar spearhead)
    Grimes, W.F., The Prehistory of Wales (Cardiff 1951), entry 504
    Savory, H.N., Guide Catalogue of the Bronze Age Collections (Cardiff, 1980), entry no.232, p.112, and fig.27, p.175

    British Museum

    St Thomas Becket’s Casket, made in Limoges France, 13 AD
    Enamel, copper, lapis lazuli
    21 (L) x 15.5 (H) x 9.3 (D) cm
    LDSAL110

    St Thomas Becket’s Casket (LDSAL110), an ornate reliquary to hold remains of St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 (Room 1).

    The earliest known spring-driven clock (LDSAL131) made by Jacob Zech of Prague in 1524 (Room 38)

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