Rubies and other precious stones from Sri Lanka are among the extraordinary treasures discovered more than a century ago in London’s famous Cheapside Hoard, which is set to go on permanent display next month at the London Museum’s new Goldsmiths’ Gallery.
The hoard, comprising nearly 500 jewels and precious objects, was accidentally discovered in 1912 when a workman’s pickaxe broke through the floor of a cellar at 30–32 Cheapside, near St Paul’s Cathedral, said a news report published by the Noosa Today.
The cellar had reportedly remained unopened for nearly 300 years. The discovery included sapphires, spinels, diamonds and rubies from India and Sri Lanka, an emerald-set gold watch made with a large Colombian emerald,
nephrite jade from China, Persian turquoise, pearls and opals.Among the more unusual pieces is an antique gem depicting the head of a Ptolemaic queen, carved in Egypt in the second or first century BC.
The collection, known as the Cheapside Hoard, consists largely of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery and is regarded as one of the most important discoveries of its kind.
Its story and the significance of the jewellery to international trade will be discussed by art curator and lecturer Amanda Herries at an ArtsNational Noosa meeting in Australia on October 24.
Herries studied archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University and was a curator at the London Museum from 1978 to 1988.
The hoard was discovered during the demolition of adjoining buildings. Some of the jewels were initially taken by workers, but antiquities dealer George Fabian Lawrence, known as “Stony Jack”, acquired many of the pieces and helped preserve the collection.
The circumstances of the burial remain uncertain, although scholars believe the jewellery was deliberately hidden by someone intending to recover it later.
Researchers have also found evidence suggesting that many pearls originally set in the jewellery had disappeared after the container deteriorated and the contents became embedded in the surrounding soil.