The Cheapside Hoard

In 1912, a workman digging a cellar in London's Cheapside neighborhood, near St. Paul's, drove his pick into an old wooden box. As it splintered, the box spilled its contents: more than 500 pieces of jewelry:

The workmen helped themselves to the jewels, wrapping them in handkerchiefs and stuffing them into their pockets, boots and caps so they could sell the treasures to a man known in the neighborhood as Stoney Jack. Stoney Jack was a familiar figure to construction workers in the area; he liked to hang out at demolition sites to snap up anything of interest that might be found. Fortunately for future generations, Stoney Jack wasn’t just some back alley fence. His real name was G.F. Lawrence. He owned an antiques store in Wandsworth and most importantly, he was head of acquisitions for the brand new London Museum which fortuitously opened the same year the Cheapside Hoard was discovered. Lord Harcourt, a founder of the London Museum, told Lawrence to seek out all the workers who had recovered hoard and buy whatever they were selling.

And that is how the largest collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century jewelry ever found came into the clutches of the diabolical London Museum.

The entire hoard is now going on display for the first time ever, in an exhibit that will run through April 27, 2014. These images were gleaned from various places on the web, since the museum itself posts only unusably tiny pictures, by way of trying to sell you better ones. Sigh. Above, a working watch set into a single carved emerald.

Newspapers at the time associated the find with the Great Fire of 1666, and recent research has confirmed that the hoard must have been buried between 1640 and 1666. Above, bow brooch with spinels.

Over the years the hoard has been associated with various noble gentlemen and ladies, but the latest thinking is that it belonged to a jeweler or group of jewelers. Perfume bottle.

Research by musem curator Hazel Forsyth points to one possible owner:

Among the huge rubies, pearls the size of acorns, emeralds and sapphires, there were some faked stones made of quartz crystal carved and dyed to resemble precious gems. Forsyth believes these may have been the work of a jeweller called Thomas Simpson, known as a skilled but sharp operator. She also believes he may have been implicated in the murder of another jeweller, who was poisoned and thrown overboard on a voyage back from the orient, and that some of the gems the unfortunate victim was bringing back to London may have ended up in the hoard.

Every good hoard should have such a story. Above, bracelets and necklaces.

 Jewel.

 Parrot carved from an emerald.

Sapphire and spinel pendant

Pearl pendant.