BRITISH MUSEUM
DEPARTMENT OF BRITISH AND MEDIAEVAL ANTIQUITIES
Among the additions to the department of British and mediaeval antiquities during the past half year are several objects of exceptional interest. In the ceramic section, a large two-handled vase of Florentine maiolica of the fifteenth century, with heraldic lions upon the sides, forms a worthy pendant to the magnificent vase of the same fabric acquired last year; while the series of oriental wares has been enriched by a writing-stand, or stand for flowers, of the twelfth or thirteenth century, ornamented with animals of archaic style in relief, and attributed to a factory in the neighbourhood of Aleppo. The acquisitions to the collection of glass exhibited in the same room include an enamelled German drinking-glass of the late sixteenth century, a very good example of its kind. ¶ In the mediaeval room the most notable additions will be found in the series of ivory carvings. Here the place of honour belongs to the beautiful head of a tau cross in morse ivory, dating from the eleventh century, recently discovered in the vicarage garden of Alcester, Warwickshire, which will be fully described next month in these pages. Secondly, there is a small but important group of ivories formerly in the possession of the Rev. Walter Sneyd, of Keele Hall, and exhibited in the art treasures exhibition at Manchester in 1857, and at South Kensington in 1862. Although few of the pieces composing this group are of high artistic merit, they are valuable as illustrations of the development of ivory carving during the early middle ages, a period which needed fuller representation in the museum collections. The most remarkable is an oval pyx of the form favoured between the fourth and seventh centuries, especially in Egypt and Syria. Its interest lies in the fact that it appears to be a Carlovingian imitation of a Syrian original dating from perhaps two centuries earlier. It differs essentially in style from the other examples which have been preserved, and the heavy, large-headed figures, with their long, retorted fingers, find their nearest parallels in the miniatures of Carlovingian MSS. Then there is a Byzantine panel, apparently by the same hand as a plaque acquired by the museum at the Ashburnham sale in 1901. This plaque was let into the cover of a thirteenth-century MS. of the romance of ‘Parceval le Galois,’ but originally belonged to a casket ornamented with scenes from the history of Joseph, two large panels from which have been for many years in the Berlin museum. It is satisfactory now to record the acquisition from the Sneyd collection of yet another example marked by the same individuality of style, and perhaps once forming a part of the same composition. Another small piece of Byzantine work not without charm is a panel from the lid of a casket of the ninth century, with figures probably from one of the classical scenes so popular during the iconoclastic period. Finally there are two long panels with seated apostles, Rhenish work of the twelfth century, and a smaller panel with the Flagellation, of similar attribution and date. An interesting accession in the sphere of prehistoric industrial art is a remarkably large bronze spear-head, inlaid at the base of the blade with gold studs, a fine example of the skill and taste of the metal-workers of Britain towards the close of the bronze age.
O. M. D.
THE WATER MILL, MEZZOTINT BY C. TURNER AFTER SIR A. W. E. CALCOTT, R.A.; IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
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THE HÔTEL DE VILLE AT LOUVAIN; COLOURED AQUATINT BY J. C. STADLER, AFTER S. PROUT; IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
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