Part of a gift to the Library from the Wellcome Trust, being from the original from the original collection of Henry Wellcome. The items in this collector's case include intaglio casts taken from medieval seals, examples of seal matrices and other small cast medieval objects.
The University of London has a long history of awarding degrees to students studying in centres around the world as ‘external students’. The University helped to establish Universities right across the Commonwealth, and set and marked examinations for many more. The University’s first official centre in Baghdad was established in 1923, some 35 years before teaching began at the University of Baghdad, and close relations between the two institutions persisted for decades. This sculpture was a gift to mark the visit of the Rector of the University of Baghdad in 1972.
An exam box from 1840 for transporting scripts to and from the examination hall. This box was for the 2nd set of exams for the Bachelor of Medicine and a pass in these would qualify you as a physician. At this time the University did not carry out any teaching and the awarding of degrees was its stock in trade. 1840 was an important year as this was the first year that that the Royal Colleges granted the same rights for University of London graduates to practice medicine as those of Oxford and Cambridge
On of a set of plaster miniatures of the bas reliefs that decorate Bentham House, now part of University College London. The building was designed by Herbert Lidbetter and constructed in 1954-58 as the headquarters of the Municipal and General Workers Union. The reliefs were designed by the sculptor Esmond Burton and celebrate the professions the union represented. The models show a dustman, quarryman, clerical worker, metal worker, housewife and nurse.
This small silver spoon belonged to Ellen Ternan, and is ultimately preserved not because of her prowess as an actress, but because of her ambiguous relationship with Charles Dickens.
This apron is from one of the country’s oldest temperance groups, founded as the Independent Order of Rechabites, Salford Unity Society, in August 1835. Their name came from the Old Testament, specifically Jeremiah 35, in which Jehonadab, Rechab’s son, forbade his descendants from drinking wine. It shows the Order’s crest, with figures of Peace and Plenty; the three images of triangular tents echoes the fact that this was the group’s name for its local chapters. A notable trait of the Order of Rechabites was their hierarchical structure, which more closely resembled a fraternal order than a typical temperance organization, and the symbolism here is reminiscent of freemasonry. Regalia such as this often denoted one’s position in the ‘Tent’ hierarchy, all the way up to the High Chief Ruler.
This handmade booklet contains a small specimen of cloth from the 'unwrapping' of a mummy held at UCL in 1889. It belonged to Reginald Arthur Rye, University Librarian and a keen Egyptologist, and was collected for him by his father. The mummy in question was later destroyed by bombing in WW2
This figure was claimed by psychic researcher Harry Price as a Roman antiquity which he excavated in his Sussex home town. It was identified as a crude forgery at the time, and Price withdrew it from view and claimed consistently that it had been stolen, but it was still amongst his possessions at his death.
Engraved cigarette case belonging to Harry Price. This cigarette case was presented to Harry Price by many figures from the world of paranormal investigations. A lavish gift, it was also fitting as Price was rarely seen without a lit cigarette. Visible here are the names and signatures of mediums; the reverse of the case bears the signatures of his fellow investigators.
The copperplate is a 12th century royal deed from the reign of Madanapala of Kannauj. It is dated with the year 1163 of the Vikrama era and conveys land to certain specified priests, Brahmins and others
Split tallies were used as a means of recording financial transactions, such as the payment of debts and taxes, from the 12th to the beginning of the 19th century in England. The details of a transaction would be recorded on a single length of wood with a series of cuts of different sizes used to indicate the amount of money involved. The wood was then split with each party taking one part as proof of the transaction; the two parts were known as a stock and a foil. As they fitted together perfectly any tampering of the notches could be detected by reuniting the stock with the foil. These four examples from the Fuller Collection are single parts (stocks), two can be identified as exchequer tallies from 1793, ten years after the use of tallies as Exchequer receipts was abolished but it wasn’t until 1826 that tallies were finally abandoned.
An object from last years of the East India Company’s administration: the 1840 seal of the Governor General of India, Lord Auckland. It is attached to a letter dated 1842 to Maharajah Sher Singh, thanking him for services rendered in relation to the first Afghan war. The letter and the seal are in Persian, which persisted as a lingua franca in the early years of British rule.
Contract tablet of the New Babylonian recording the sale or division of a large quantity of grain, dated in the month of Ab in the 6th year of Nabonidus, King of Babylon
The three medallions and the bronze figure here were purchased by collector and ethnologist Alfred Fuller as examples of ‘Billy and Charley’ forgeries. William Smith and Charles Eaton were unemployed and uneducated Victorian Londoners who identified a hunger amongst the middle classes for collecting antiquities, and set about creating them on a considerable scale. While they were widely recognised as forgers in their lifetime, they were not successfully prosecuted. A pleasing irony is that their creations are typically now worth more than equivalent genuine artefacts.
The sculpted head of Friedrich Gundolf, presumed to be by Ludwig Thormaehlen, has an almost uncanny evocation of a living person, while giving the German scholar a classical, heroic cast.
Like all images of Shakespeare, this cast of his memorial in Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church is controversial. This particular example lacks much of the detail of the both the original and other casts, and carries on its reverse a spurious anecdote of an illicit casting, attempting to present it as the only true representation.
Seaweed samples from Volume containing seventy-one named examples of seaweeds pasted into pages, including note on the inside cover:: 'Presented by Mrs Gray (wife of Dr JE Gray) of the Brit[ish] Mus[eum]' (42pp) (1804 – 1865). To see the full digitised album click on the catalogue link.
This bust forms part of one of the world's largest collections of shorthand material, and is eloquent testimony to the passion of shorthand enthusiasts. Pitman was the inventor of the world's most widely adopted shorthand system.
Assyrian cuneiform inscription stamped on a brick dedicated to Ishme-Dagan, fourth king in the First Dynasty of Isin. c. 1960 BC. Presented by the Central Library of Chelmsford in 1954.
