Experts hope to solve mystery of Cheapside Hoard as jewels go on display

The Cheapside Hoard, a dazzling haul of almost 500 pieces from the Elizabethan and early Stuart eras, is being brought together by the Museum of London.

The “priceless” collection was uncovered by a group of labourers under a cellar floor in London’s Cheapside in 1912 and is believed to have been hidden about 350 years ago.

Excavations at the site found evidence of damage caused by the Great Fire of London, dating the collection to pre-1666.

Recent studies of a gemstone dubbed the “Stafford intaglio”, which is engraved with the heraldic badge of William Howard, the only Viscount Stafford, have narrowed the date down to between 1640 and 1666.

Speaking at a preview of the exhibition, curator Jackie Keily said the hoard was likely to have been stored by a jeweller or goldsmith who fought in the English Civil War and never returned.

“That’s one of the big mysteries of the Cheapside Hoard,” she said. “Who buried it and how did it come to be buried at that time?

“We don’t think it was buried at the time of the Great Fire. People did bury their precious items but in most cases people came back and got them. Although the building was destroyed, the cellar itself was intact.

“It’s more likely that whoever buried it was perhaps going off to the English Civil War in the early 1640s, either a jeweller or a goldsmith.

“This may have been their stock in trade that they would have buried under the cellar floor and then gone off to war and perhaps never came back again.”

The museum has hailed the collection as “the single most important source of our knowledge on early modern jewellery worldwide”.

The hoard includes rings, necklaces, Byzantine cameos and jewelled scent bottles, with precious stones from Colombia and India, and pearls from Bahrain.

The exhibition, which opens in October, will display the jewellery alongside rarely seen portraits and historical objects illustrating the fashions and culture of the era.

Sharon Ament, director of the Museum of London, said: “As London’s most exciting stash of buried treasure, the Cheapside Hoard tells a thrilling tale of mystery and discovery, with every jewel and gemstone unlocking a story.”