Charter Reforms Past and Present

On 10 February 2016, Her Majesty the Queen was pleased to approve the Order which put in place the amendments to the 1751 Royal Charter and its Supplementary Charters as presented to and endorsed by the EGM on 3 December. All elements therefore of the revised Royal Charters and the new Statutes are now fully in force. A copy of the Statutes, as approved by the Extraordinary General Meeting on 3 December 2015, and of the version of the Charter now given Royal approval, can be found in the “Governance” section of our website.

Order no 1, on the Conduct of Anniversary Elections for Officers and for Council Members, and no 2, on the Provision of postal or electronic voting for Anniversary Elections and other matters, were also confirmed by the Meeting on 3 December 2015, and the texts of these can also be found in the “Governance” section of the Society’s website.

There are two items of business to be conducted at the forthcoming Anniversary Meeting on 21 April 2016, on which a vote will be taken:

• [item 3 on the printed agenda of the Meeting] To confirm Order no. 3, ‘The Conduct of Elections and Admissions to the Society for Ordinary and Honorary Fellows.

• [item 4 on the printed agenda of the Meeting] To approve the appointment of Kingston Smith LLP as the Society’s auditors for 2016-17.

Order no. 2 of the revised Statutes, ‘On the provision of postal and electronic voting for Anniversary Elections and other matters for the Society’s Fellowship’, allow for voting other than in person at the Anniversary Meeting. You may use this link to vote (online) in advance of the Anniversary Meeting. If you are present at the Meeting itself, you must not vote again! The deadline for online voting will be 12.00 (noon) on the day of the meeting (21 April).
 

Gifts to the Library

The Society is very grateful to the donors of the following books, given to the Library in the period from January to March 2016. Full records for all are on the online catalogue www.sal.org.uk/library, and all books are available in the Library at Burlington House.  

• From the author, Alan Bott, FSA, Merton College: a longer history of the buildings and furnishings (2015)
• From Pippa Bradley, FSA, Imperial College Sports Ground and RMC Land, Harlington:  the development of prehistoric and later communities in the Colne Valley and on the Heathrow Terrace by Andrew B. Powell et al. (Wessex Archaeology Report, 33) (2015)
• From the co-author, Susan Brind, Curious arts no. 6 by Susan Brind and Jim Harold (2015)
• From the author, Tobias Capwell, FSA, Armour of the English knight 1400-1450 (2015)
• From the author, Maxwell Craven, FSA, John Whitehurst: innovator, scientist, geologist and clockmaker (2015)
• From the author, Stephen L. Dyson, The last amateur: the life of William J. Stillman (2014)
• From the author, Anthony Emery, FSA, Seats of power in Europe during the Hundred Years War: an architectural study from 1330 to 1480 (2016)
• From the joint author, Richard Harrison, FSA, Un Poblado de la Edad del Bronce en El Castillo by R. J. Harrison, Mª. T. Andrés Rupérez and G. Moreno López (BAR International Series, 708) (1998)
• From Richard Harrison, FSA
  • Cancho Roano: Más que Palabras: bibliografía crítica sobre el yacimiento post-Orientalizante de Zalamea de la Serena (1980-2010) by Javier Jiménez Ávila (2012)
  • Early English lantern clocks 1615-1700 (exhibition catalogue) (n.d.)
  • mweltarchäologie --  naturkatastrophen und umweltwandel im archäologischen Befund:  3. Mitteldeutscher archäologentag vom 07.bis 09. Oktober 2010 (Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale), Bd 6) (2011)
  • Arqueología de la Sal en las Lagunas de Villafáfila (Zamora): investigaciones sobre los cocederos prehistóricos by F. Javier Abarquero Moras et al. (Monografias:  Arqueología en Castilla y León, 9) (2012)
  • Alcalar 7: estudo e reabilitação de um Momumento Megalítico (Cadernos, 6) (2004)
  • 130 Años de arÇ«ueologia Mandrileña: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Febrero-Marzo 1987
  • El Poblado Íbero-Romano de El Palao by F. Marco Simón (Ä€l-QannÄ«s, 10) (2003)
  • Carta Arqueologica de Teruel by P. Atrián Jordán et al. (1980)
  • Cemetery of the corded ware culture in Źerniki Górne by Andrzej Kempisty and Piotr WÅ‚odarczak (ÅšWIATOWIT Supplement Series P:  Prehistory and Middle Ages, vol. 5) (2000)
  • Elfenbeinstudien Fas.2:  Chalkolithische und Fruhbronzezeitliche Elfenbeinobjeckte auf der Iberischen Halbinsel by Th. X. Schuhmacher (Iberia Archaologica, Bd. 16 Faz. 2) (2012)
  • Iberos del Matarraña by Pierre Moret et al (Ä€l-QannÄ«s, 11) (2006)
  • El Hallazgo Leonés de Valdevimbre y los depósitos del bronce final Atlántico en la penÄ«nsula Ibérica by J. Celis Sánchez et al. (Estudios y Catálogos, 17) (2007)
  • La navegación Fenicia: technología naval y derroteros by Victoria Peña et al. (2004)
  • El Yacimiento de Cueva Lóbrega by Ignacio Barrios Gil (Historia. Arqueologia, 15) (2004)
  • Las Comunidades Campaniformes en Galicia by M.P. Prieto-Martinez et al. (2011)
• From the editors, K. J. P. Lowe, FSA, and Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, The global city on the streets of Renaissance Lisbon (2015)
• From the author, Malcolm Lyne, FSA, Late Roman handmade grog-tempered ware producing industries in south east Britain (Archaeopress Roman Archaeology, 12) (2015)
• From Vincent Megaw, FSA
  • Arte protoceltica a Salisburgo: catalogo a cura della della regione di Salisburgo by Fritz Moosleitner (1987)
  • Persistent economic ways of living: production, distribution and consumption in late prehistory and early history edited by AlžbÄ•ta Danielisová and Manuel Fernández-Götz (2015)
  • Das Jastorf-Konzept und die vorrömische Eisenzeit im nördlichen mitteleuropa … (2014)
  • Satu Mare: Studii ÅŸi comunicări  (Seria Arheologie 30.1) (2014)
• From the authors, Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim, The dress detective: a practical guide to object-based research in fashion by Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim (2015)
• From the author’s widow, Carolyn Osborn-Jones, The heraldic elephant by C. Osborn-Jones (2015)
• From the author, Cecilia Powell, FSA, Excursion to Wordsworthshire:  a Victorian family in the Lakes (2015)
• From the author, Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey, FSA, The villas of Pliny from antiquity to posterity (1994)
• From Mark Purcell, FSA, The Montaigne Library of Gilbert de Botton at Cambridge University Library by Philip Ford (2008)
• From the author, Peter Salway, FSA, Roman Britain: a very short introduction, 2nd edition (2015)
• From the author, Timothy Schroder, FSA, English silver before the Civil War: the David Little Collection (2015)
• From the author, Siegmar von Schnurbein, FSA, Atlas der Vorgeschichte: Europa von den ersten Menschen bis Christi Geburt (2014)
• From the author, Barbara Tomlinson, FSA, Commemorating the seafarer: monuments, memorials and memory (2015)
• From Sir David Wilson, FSA, Hellenistic and Roman terracottas from Egypt by Lászlo Török (Bibliotheca Archaeologica, 15) (1995)
• From The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, In search of Alderman John Browne, King’s Painter 1511-1527, Serjeant painter 1527-1532, died 1532 and Richard Calard Esquire, died 1544 and the reasons for the joining together of the Painters’ Company and the Stainers’ Company in 1501 or 1502 by Duncan Burton (2014)

the Society’s aeolipile (or hearth-blower) forms a characterful example of late medieval metalwork and a splendid relic of 18th-century antiquarianism - See more at: https://www.sal.org.uk/museum-collection/unlocking-our-collections/#sthash.vb2WRdbb.dpuf

If you have a favourite object in the Society's Library or Museum collections and would be willing to research and write a short feature for our website, please contact the Collections Manager, Anooshka Rawden, at arawden@sal.org.uk.

Back to the beginning of the report

‘There must be a number of unidentified scourges from monastic excavations,’ said Glyn Coppack FSA commenting on a discovery made at Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire, ‘but apart from the one from La Grava I have not seen any others myself. I suspect they are very rare indeed, and this is an exceptional find.’
 
What are believed to be parts of a monastic copper scourge or cat-o-nine-tails have emerged during conservation work on finds from excavations in 2014 by Nottinghamshire County Council Community Archaeology. It is suggested that Cistercian monks may have used scourges in an attempt to defeat the Black Death, or for the mortification of the body.
 

Historic England has advised listing cartoons painted on the walls of a London home used by the Sex Pistols, a punk rock band of strong influence in the 1970s. The decision was said to have been closely informed by work by John Schofield FSA (pictured), Head of Archaeology at the University of York, and Paul Graves-Brown, who described the art in 6 Denmark Street in Antiquity in 2011.
 
Schofield himself admitted to doubts about the listing. ‘I think these artworks are highly significant,’ he said in a York press release, ‘but that view and the Grade II* listing will of course divide opinion – the Sex Pistols are and will always be controversial.’
 
‘I have mixed feelings about the listing’, he continued, ‘to be honest. It is good to have this designation off the coattails of our own research, and to see such an alternative and counter-cultural place given this national recognition.
 
‘But it is also a rather odd contradiction, for a building so closely associated with the Sex Pistols and their rallying cry “No Future” to be preserved for the benefit of future generations.
 
‘Punk helped change the world, and it did so with genuine anger, but also with passion, compassion and humour. May be there is a lesson there for our times. Denmark Street was where it all started.’
 
Joe Corré, son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, who managed the Sex Pistols and gave them their name, would probably share Schofield’s doubts.
 
In a press release Corré said he plans to burn his £5 million memorabilia collection on 26 November, to commemorate 40 years of punk. ‘When the Queen gives a ***** nod to punk’s 40th Anniversary Year,’ he said, ‘you know something has gone seriously wrong.’
 

The Royal Collection has announced major works to tourist areas at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, to improve public facilities and access at two of the Queen’s official residences. The £37 million transformations, funded by the Royal Collection Trust charity, will include a new cafe in the Medieval undercroft at Windsor Castle (pictured).
 
Jonathan Marsden FSA is the Director of the Trust. ‘People have been visiting Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse for centuries,’ he said, ‘and now more than 1.5 million do so every year. We want everybody to have a proper sense of arrival, to be able to make choices about how they go about their visits. We will interpret the palaces and collections in new ways, open up new spaces to the public, and we’re going to create two purpose-built learning centres.”
 
The work will begin in early 2017, said the Trust in a press statement, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. Both residences will remain open to visitors during this time. Marsden describes the projects in a video. ‘The only way to understand [Windsor Castle’s] long history’, he says, ‘is to stand within its surviving Medieval spaces, and Future Programme is going to provide that opportunity.’
 

A 3000-year-old inscribed bone has become the world's first Chinese 'oracle bone' to be scanned and printed in 3D. The bone is one of 614 examples in the collection of Cambridge University Library, and features in the Library’s 600th anniversary exhibition, Lines of Thought. The artefacts are the oldest known documents written in the Chinese language, dating from 1339–1112 BC. Inscribed on ox shoulder blades and turtle shells, they record questions to which answers were sought by divination at the court of the royal house of Shang. One notes a lunar eclipse in 1192 BC.
 
In a press release, Charles Aylmer, Head of the Chinese Department at the Library, thanked archaeologist Dominic Powlesland FSA, ‘one of the leading pioneers in this area [of 3D digitisation]’. The print was made at Addenbrooke's Hospital, using equipment more commonly used to assist in planning maxillofacial and orthopaedic surgery.
 
‘The reverse sides of the bones,’ said Aylmer, ‘which are crucial to understanding the process of divination but have hitherto been neglected because of the difficulty of representing them adequately, can now be studied in detail thanks to this new technique. To hold a 3D print of an oracle bone is a very special experience, as it provides the same sensory impression as that obtained by the people who created them over three thousand years ago, but without the risk of harm to the priceless originals.’
 

London’s changing skyline continues to be debated. Historic England published a survey purported to show that half of Londoners think new towers planned for the capital will have a negative effect on views. ‘The millions of people who live and work in the city need to be better informed and more involved in the changes that are gathering pace,’ said Duncan Wilson FSA, Chief Executive of Historic England. ‘It matters when tall buildings spring up in the wrong places, overshadowing our crescents and squares, our playgrounds and palaces, canals and cathedrals.’
 
In a letter to The Times, Sir Laurie Magnus, Chairman Historic England, Loyd Grossman FSA, Chairman Heritage Alliance, and architect Sir Terry Farrell, bemoaned the lack of strategy for ‘more than 400 tall buildings (of 20 storeys plus) in the pipeline for London’. ‘The next mayor will be judged by his or her contribution to London’s continuing success,’ they concluded.
 
Historic England is calling for wider public involvement in how the city develops in the run-up to the next London plan, a development strategy for the Greater London Area to be drawn up by the new mayor after elections in May.
 

An Old Kingdom statue of Sekhemka (24–2300 BC), once owned by the people of Northampton and sold in 2014 by their Borough Council, failed to find a buyer to keep it in the UK. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey extended a temporary export bar until March 29, but no one it seems was prepared to be seen to be validating the controversial sale by matching the enormous auction price of £14 million.
 
Christopher Rowell FSA, the National Trust’s Curator of Furniture, hopes for a better outcome for British collections with a stunning pair of Florentine table tops. The tops feature mosaic stone panels showing Rome’s Colosseum (pictured) and the Porto Mediceo of Livorno, Tuscany. They were commissioned by George Clavering-Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper, a lover of Italian art. After his death in Florence in 1789, his collection was brought to Britain and displayed by his sons in Panshanger, Hertfordshire, built for the purpose. They remained in the picture gallery until the mid-20th century, when the estate was sold and the house demolished.
 
Rowell, who is a member of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, said: “Earl Cowper was one of the most fascinating of all British Grand Tourists. His varied collections were of supreme quality, including Raphael’s two ‘Cowper’ Madonnas, and there is considerable documentation about his remarkable life in Florence. The Florentine pietre dure craftsmen were immensely skilled and their art was time consuming, exclusive and expensive. Imagine designing and making a jigsaw from stone and cutting every piece meticulously without modern cutting machinery! No wonder that Earl Cowper had to wait several years to take delivery of them. The Cowper connection renders these beautiful and original table tops key documents for the history of the Grand Tour and for 18th-century British patronage of Italian art.”
 
The decision on the export licence will be deferred until 3 July. This may be extended until 3 November 2016 if a serious intention to raise funds to purchase them is made at the recommended price of £1,500,000.
 

A smaller artefact that has crossed the Channel from a London auction house (see above) has also drawn wide interest, more for its alleged historical associations than its appearance. Timeline Auctions set up the sale as a potential battle between England and France. A silver ring, said to have been taken from a finger of Joan of Arc before her death on an execution pyre in 1431, was sold on 26 February for £297,600, 20 times its higher estimate. It was bought by the Puy du Fou historical theme park in the Vendée, founded by Philippe de Villiers, now a politician known for his extreme criticism of Islam in France (‘Thanks to @PhdeVilliers for returning Joan of Arc's ring to French soil,’ tweeted Marine le Pen after the sale).
 
The auctioneer offered a 'professional drawing showing the ring extended', a 'positive X-Ray Fluorescence metal analysis certificate', and a mountain of provenance documentation, including press cuttings, typed research notes, correspondence, shipping documents, exhibition captions and more (all part of the lot). But none of that reached back before the last century. The only document with a claim to historical significance (as opposed to, at best, glamorous interest) was written by a former Fellow, Frederick Oates FSA.
 
Oates, who was Keeper of the King's Armoury and Keeper of the London Museum in the 1920s, published Catalogue of Finger Rings; Brought Together by F. A. Harman Oates, in 1917, printing only 36 copies (the February buyer had to settle for a photocopy). In this he refers to the ‘belief’ that the ring had belonged to Joan of Arc. It was sold by Sotheby's in 1929 as part of the F. A. Harman Oates collection, whence it ended up this century as the ‘property of an Essex gentleman’. Its earlier owners were of greater public interest. Timeline Auctions listed these as Augustus John before 1914, who had been given it by Lady Ottoline Morrell; she had inherited it through the Cavendish-Bentinck family (Duke of Portland) from cardinal Henry Beaufort (1375–1447), who was present at Joan of Arc’s trial and execution; and, to complete the full provenance history, ‘the ring [was] stated by Joan at her trial to have been a gift from her parents’.
 
The Economist (from whom I stole the headline above) failed to find any evidence to support the French saint connection. ‘I have yet to talk to a museum curator, an art dealer or an independent scholar who believes that the association with Jeanne d'Arc dates back to her lifetime,’ it quoted Sandra Hindman as saying. A medievalist, Professor Emerita at Northwestern University and dealer in Medieval art and rings, Hindman thought that ‘the attribution of the auctioned ring was part of the Jeanne d'Arc mania that begins in the 19th century and continues until about the mid-20th century.’ ‘Her opinion was echoed by the other experts consulted by this reporter,’ said The Economist.
 
The Art Newspaper had another line. Martin Bailey wondered if the ring had an export licence, given the speed with which it was conjured out of the country. He quoted a spokeswoman for Arts Council England: 'the application process is confidential', she told him; 'however, given the age and price of the item, its export would require an individual licence'. Bailey’s historical sources, however, disagreed with The Economist's. ‘The link with Joan of Arc’, he wrote, ‘is widely accepted among specialists, since it so closely fits the description of a ring she spoke about during her trial.’
 

The trustees of Churches Conservation, who include Loyd Grossman FSA, have announced a new grant award scheme for young craftspeople with an interest in religious heritage conservation who want to travel to increase their expertise and knowledge, and ultimately benefit UK heritage skills. Up to two awards of between £500 and £1000 will be granted in June for each of the next three years. See the Foundation’s website for more information. The deadline for initial applications is 16 May 2016.