BRITISH MUSEUM
«SEP. 2014»

Photos © Ruud Leeuw


 

It seemed fitting to open this page with 'some royalty'...
The King Edward VII's Galleries were opened on 07May1914.
British Museum

Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death.
He was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward was related to royalty throughout Europe. Before his accession to the throne, he served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors.

During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.
He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and the Indian subcontinent in 1875 were popular successes, but his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII

British Museum
Dedicated to Her Majesty ..

 

 

The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.
The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries was largely a result of an expanding British colonial footprint and has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the British Museum (Natural History) in South Kensington in 1881.

Until 1997, when the British Library (previously centred on the Round Reading Room) moved to a new site, the British Museum housed both a national museum of antiquities and a national library in the same building.
The size of this museum is indeed of such that one has to enter with a plan on what to visit!

British Museum

Today the museum no longer houses collections of natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent British Library. The Museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern.
The original 1753 collection has grown to over thirteen million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library. Staggering numbers.

 

British Museum

British Museum
Horned helmet. Found in the River Thames at Waterloo Bridge, London (150 - 50 BC).

 

 

 

 

British Museum
The Weston Gallery offered a fine exhibition on Roman Britain, a fascinating period.

British Museum
Checking if someone is stil in there!

British Museum

British Museum

The Mildenhall Treasure. This hoard is one of the most important collections of late-Roman silver tableware from the Roman Empire. Little is known of the precise circumstances of its discovery; the objects were unearthed during ploughing near Mildenhall in Suffolk, in 1942 or 1943.
At one time it must have been owned by a person or family of considerable wealth, considering the technical and artistic quality of the silver vessels.
No coins or jewellery were associated with the find. A date in the 4th century is indicated by the forms of spoons and other utensils as well as the style and technique of the decoration.


 

 

British Museum
The Sutton Hoo exhibition was widely advertised and actually brought us to the British Museum.
The advertisement used that bewitching, haunting helmet and I could not resist.
It is quite bewildering to consider it survived from the Anglo-Saxon times.

British Museum
A replica has been made to represent the splendour and detail of those days.

British Museum

British Museum

Information on the Sutton Hoo ship burial, its discovery and significance.
The find also contained 16 pieces of silver tableware from the Mediterranean. This region was then part of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople.
The silverware probably reached Sutton Hoo through a network of gift exchange between rulers across Europe, bringing Byzantine luxuries to the Frankish realm (centring on present day France, Belgium and western Germany) and onwards to Anglo-saxon England.
Early Anglo-Saxons did not produce silver dining sets, they typically used wood and horn instead.
At Sutton Hoo, the silverware may have been used for dining or perhaps as a display of 'royal treasure'. Exotic and costly, it would have demonstrated its owner's status, wealth and connections.

 

British Museum

British Museum
Weapons found in men's graves reveal the importance of fighting prowess in early Anglo-Saxon society.

British Museum

 

 

British Museum

British Museum

 


 

 


 

British Museum
European armour underwent important developments from 1300 - 1400.

British Museum
Last june we were in France and visited several sites connected with the royal Plantagenet family. Brilliant to come face to face now with a ring which may have belonged to Richard Lionheart!

British Museum
Medieval Europe (1050 - 1500), with monarchy and church institutions the prevailing influences.

 

 

British Museum
Europe (1400 - 1800) saw profound social changes.
Conflicts, encounters with other continents and the expansion of international trade brought ever lasting impact.

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum
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