necklace

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Object Type
Museum number: 115656
Title: Series: Lady Layard's Necklace
Description: Lady Layard's necklace: the gold settings are decorated with chevron borders which imitates Late Assyrian cylinder seals, and included Assyrian lions' heads and 'pine-cone' motifs.
Producer name
Production date: 1869 (Date of manufacture of the gold settings and make-up of the necklace)
Materials
Dimensions: Height: 6.88 centimetres (bracelet); Length: 6.58 centimetres (ear-ring); Length: 6.79 centimetres (ear-ring); Length: 49.70 centimetres (necklace); Width: 7.39 centimetres (bracelet)
Curator's comments: Sir Austin Henry Layard married in March 1869 at the age of 52. His 25-year-old bride was Enid Guest, daughter of l;ady Charlotte Schreiber, Layard's cousin, old friend and long-time supporter. As a wedding present, Layard had a number of seals which he had acquired during his travels made up into a necklace, bracelet (1913,0208.1) and two earrings (1913,0208.2 & 1913,0208.3) in these Victorian gold settings. A portrait (1980,1216.1) shows Enid wearing the jewellery, and she wrote in her diary that, when they dined with Queen Victoria in 1873, it was 'much admired'. See also C. Gere & J. Rudoe, 'Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World', London, British Museum, 2010, fig. 368, p.394.
Bibliographic references: Curtis & Reade 1995a / Art and empire: treasures from Assyria in the British Museum (p. 220 no. 250) (photograph); Rudoe 1987 / Lady Layard's jewellery and the 'Assyrian Style' in nineteenth-century jewellery design (pp. 213-215, pl. XXXI) (photograph); Guide 1922 / Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum (p. 231); British Museum 2011a / Splendours of Mesopotamia (p.169, cat.149)
Location: On display (G55/dc15)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2013 22 Jun-2014 6 Jan, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 'Mesopotamia, Inventing Our World' 2013 30 Jan-13 May, Museum of History, Hong Kong, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia' 2012 4 May-7 Oct, Melbourne Museum, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia' 2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia' 2008 21 Sept-2009 4 Jan, Boston, MFA, 'Art and Empire' 2006 1 Jul-7 Oct, Shanghai Museum, 'Art and Empire' 2004 15 Oct-2005 16 Jan, London, Leighton House Museum and Linley Sambourne House, 'The Price of Beauty: Edward Long's 'Babylonian Marriage Market' 1993 18 Nov-1994 15 Jan, France, Paris, Musée du Louvre, '150 ème Anniversaire de la Decouverte des Assyriens'
Condition: Fair
Associated names
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1913
Acquisition notes: Report to the Director by Budge, dated 30 April 1914
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 115656
Registration number: .115656
Joined objects: Associated Group: G10325 (10 objects)
Conservation: Treatment: 21 Sep 1993; Treatment: 28 Jun 2010; Treatment: 08 Nov 2004

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