The Goldsmiths’ Company Gold: Power and Allure 4,500 years of gold treasures across Britain

Figure 1. Gold Ampulla, 1633. © National Museums Scotland. Made to hold the sacred anointing oil for the coronation of Charles I at Holyrood House, Edinburgh on 18 June 1633. Measuring a mere 12.7cms high, this symbolic gold object is one of the highlights of the exhibition.

This exhibition, marking the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, is a walk through the history of gold on these islands, embracing more than 500 rarely seen items, from ancient Irish lunula and basket-shaped ornaments unearthed at Stonehenge, to sacred ampulla and royal coronets, alongside ornate jewellery, modern sporting trophies and a handkerchief of gold thread. Coin displays embrace every gold coin produced during the reign of each British monarch from Edward III in 1312 (save Edward V), with a reminder that, since 1282, The Goldsmiths’ Company itself has been charged with testing the quality of the coinage at the annual Trial of the Pyx, still held today. The modern market is acknowledged with a gleaming 400 t.oz Good Delivery Bar, reminding us that the London Gold Market has developed a global brand.

As the curator, Dr Helen Clifford, explained: “The exhibition focuses for the first time on the British involvement with gold – as an exploitable ore, as a symbol of power, both spiritual and secular, as a medium of exchange and commerce, and as an inspiration of masterpieces of craftsmanship. The challenge has been to draw together the many strands that make a single precious metal so special. This is gold from the Bronze Age to modern City finance. ”

Dr Clifford led me to the opening display on mining in England and Wales. The oldest recorded workings are at Dolaucothi in central Wales, mined by the Romans and, erratically, ever since. Most of Britain’s recorded production since 1861 of 130,000 t.oz is from this area, supplemented by small amounts from Kildonian in Scotland and the rivers around Falmouth, whence the largest nugget, weighing just 2 t.oz, and on display here, was found in 1808. However, it is the skill of goldsmiths and their sheer ingenuity in using the malleability and ductility of the metal through the millennia that carries this show. Moreover, the continuity of their craftsmanship is crucial. As Dr Clifford explained: “A comparison of the crescent lunula beaten out of sheet gold around 2,400 BC with a neckpiece made by Jacqueline Mina in 2009 not only reveals shared metal-working skills, but also millennia-leaping continuity in aesthetic sensibility.”

What struck me more than the brilliance of gold goblets or trophies was the sheer delicacy of many pieces. Bracelets and collars in abstract patterns of gold wire may evoke a spider in its web or a great spray of grasses and buttercups fabricated from gold wire and sheet gold demonstrate the goldsmith’s versatility. I huddled, too, over the pattern book of Toye & Company, which made gold lace, braids and threads a century ago, each little spool carefully labelled ‘Best quality silk’ or ‘Best quality cotton’ to match the material they replicated. Such golden threads embroidered a page’s jacket for the coronation of George IV and the epaulettes of naval officers. Not to forget a handkerchief of finest gold wire created this year by Giovanni Corraja and the elegant feathery sweep of a 19th-century gold quill, alongside a unique pair of solid gold spectacles from the 18th century loaned by the College of Optometrists.

Figure 2. The Irish Lunulla, c 2000-1,500 BC. © The Drapers’ Company. An exciting example of early gold work featured in the exhibition is a magnificent lunulla dating from 2,000-1,500 BC, which was found in Northern Ireland then owned by the Worshipful Company of Drapers’ in c.1845/6. These distinctive early Bronze-moon shaped pieces were hammered out of gold and thought to adorn the necks of tribal chieftans.

A dedicated display, ‘The Gold of Antiquity’, takes us back to the earliest working of gold. Excavations for new housing in Amesbury, near Stonehenge in 2002 revealed the burial place of two men thought to date to 2300 BC. Each had a pair of small gold basket-shaped ornaments laid near them. Admire, too, three distinctive early Bronze Age crescent moon- shaped pieces, or lunula, hammered out of gold between 2000-1500 BC and thought to have adorned the necks of tribal chieftains (see figure 2). Less than 200 lunulas are known and three of them may be seen at Goldsmiths’ Hall. So are gold torcs (neck ornaments) from the later Bronze Age and Early Iron Age found at Ipswich, Snettisham, Newark and Stirling, revealing the skill of early goldsmiths. Dr Clifford notes: “It is somewhat ironic that the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ should have produced some of the finest gold work ever made in these islands. The achievements of Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths were of remarkable accomplishment and beauty… Experiments with enamelling and stone-setting can be seen in the early 7th-century gold and garnet pendant from Canterbury Museum.”

Thereafter, fine objects are rarer and were mostly made for the Church in the form of chalices, shrines and reliquaries. They were usually of gold set with cabochon, such as a famous ‘M’-shaped brooch from the mid14th century from New College, Oxford on display at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

After 1500, gold as a Christian symbol of the divine became grander, with ornate chalices and amullae containing holy anointing oil. Moreover, they began to be hallmarked by The Goldsmiths’ Company. The first surviving religious hallmarked gold is a chalice given by Bishop Fox in 1515 when he founded Corpus Christi College in Oxford. The exhibition displays a succession of such objects from a communion cup made of gold from Guinea (which became an important source of gold by the 16th century) to a handsome ampulla (see figure 1) used at the Scottish coronation of Charles I at Holyrood House, Edinburgh in 1633. The tradition continues to this day, with some notable recycling of gold. The chalice design for the Catholic cathedral in Liverpool in 1958 was made from donated wedding rings.

To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, coronets and other items from the Royal Collections have been loaned. They include the coronet of George, Prince of Wales, created in 1902 for the coronation of his father, Edward VII. Royal duty was also often rewarded with gold cups, for example to the Duke of Norfolk in 1821 for his services as Earl Marshall, while the Duke of Ormonde & Ossory received a cup costing £230 for acting as Chief Butler for Ireland at banquets for the same event. Slightly more macabre is a gold ring taken from the finger of the dead Queen Elizabeth I in 1603

Figure 3. Claret Gold Jug by Martyn Pugh, 2008. © Private Collection. Made to commission for a client who wanted a solid gold claret jug. It is made of a new 99% gold, 1% titanium alloy, equating to 23.75 carats, which can be fashioned in a soft condition then hardened by heating.

After 1700, the new abundance of gold from discoveries in Brazil that more than doubled world production brought a flurry of lavish gold cups, dishes and ornaments for hallmarking at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Gold trophies for horse racing abounded, with a range of little gold beakers as prizes at Chester Races, and two elegant teapots for the King’s Prize at Leith Races in Scotland. Later, gold medals were struck for the Olympic Games, although they were only made of solid gold for the first four Games and can be seen here.

Gold tableware also signalled power and wealth, as only the rich could afford gold rather than silver gilt. So we admire gold ice buckets from c.1680-90, owned by the Duchess of Marlborough, and a magnificent ewer and basin created by the goldsmith Pierre Platel in 1701-2 for William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire (see figure 4). Not to be outdone, the wealthy William Beckford affirmed his status with a gold teapot and toasting fork, which he took on his travels. This is a modern vogue, too: witness a laser-cut breadbasket and tongs by Grant Macdonald from the Downing Street Collection, a laser welded jug by Martyn Pugh (see figure 3) created in 2011 and a simple elegant Jubilee Gold Bowl by Michael Lloyd made for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.

The common feature of articles made since Tudor times is a hallmark from Goldsmith’s Hall, mandatory since the London Assay Office was established there in 1478. Appropriately, old touchstones and touch needles used for centuries to confirm the gold’s fineness are on display. Alongside them are trial plates for the annual Trial of the Pyx (Latin for money box) to determine the fineness of coins. A unique collection of gold coins, ancient and modern, has been assembled for this exhibition. The central showcase starts with a Noble minted for Edward III and tested by The Goldsmiths’ Company in 1312, and then continues with all its successors as official currency, 31 in all, to the present Queen (only Edward V ruled so briefly that no coin was struck). Here we see a likeness of all our rulers of the last 700 years (except for Edward V). Edward III’s Noble shows him, sword and shield in hand, at sea on his flagship – a perfect snapshot in gold. Most significant are the Guinea, first struck in 1663, and the Sovereign of 1816, which became internationally accepted coins, making London the leading gold market for over 300 years, with the coins being ordered by the fledgling Bank of England (founded in1694) from the Royal Mint. These two coins and the Bank were the foundation of the London Gold Market we know today.

British coins may have centre stage here, but beside them are some of the great coins of antiquity. A tiny gold coin stamped with a royal lion symbol by King Croesus of Lydia (modern Turkey) around 550 BC and a Stater of Philip II of Macedon, c.336 BC, lead the way. Next, admire the coins of great empires, a Roman Aureaus of Claudius 4-54 AD, a Solidus of Constantine the Great, 307-337 AD, and a Venetian Ducat, first minted in 1285, which endured until the fall of the Republic in 1797, weight and fineness unchanged, as Venice became the first international bullion market, a role taken over by London after 1700.

The achievement of the ‘Gold: Power and Allure’ exhibition is to encapsulate, visually, the story of gold through the last 4,500 years, from simple trinkets found near Stonehenge to today’s handsome laser-cut jug or vase, and a coin from Croesus to a sovereign of Queen Elizabeth in 2012.