I have to share this
story about the four year old British boy who wielded a metal detector to find a gold Tudor-era reliquary pendant buried in a field in Essex. The pendant is worth close to $6 million dollars and could possibly wind up in the British Museum. The boy will have to split the proceeds with the owner of the field, but still, what a prize for an afternoon's outing! Maybe I should get my own son one of those contraptions for Christmas and take him over to France...
It's fascinating to imagine who the pendant's owner might have been and how it wound up in that field. Suppose she lost it one day and someone told her that in five hundred years a young child would unearth it. Would she have believed him? In any case, the pendant is a beautiful artifact and a welcome addition to some museum's early modern collection.
EDITED TO ADD:
BBC video of the boy, the field, and the find!
Posts
11 comments:
What a fantastic story! One does wonder what happened originally and how the reliquary was lost in a field. I wonder what was there in the sixteenth century. Or perhaps the owner lost it while riding, like Mary Queen of Scots losing her watch in the Queen's Mire.
Clearly the writer of the story in the Daily Mail doesn't understand the I/J connection of the time--the name isn't "Caspar" spelled wrong, but "Jaspar." There was a Jasper Tudor at one point, wasn't there? It's an unusual name and should help them figure out who it could have belonged to.
Thanks for the link!
Elizabeth, I thought the same thing when I saw the name. "I" often substituted for "J" back then--I said to myself, "That's Jaspar, not Caspar!" But, not being all that familiar with British royalty, I didn't know there was a Jaspar Tudor. A Google search shows that JT lived from 1431-1495, however, so it's probably not his, unless they've dated the pendant wrong. Nevertheless, I agree with you, the name must be Jaspar. I'm sure there must have been other Jaspars, named after him even! No Saint Jaspar, as far as I can tell (since it was a reliquary, after all)...Hmmm, so interesting!!
There's a novel in this somewhere...
I know! I hesitated to post it, because I don't want someone else to get there first! ;)
I'll pretend I never saw it... lalalala. Heh.
I agree that the "Jasper" probably isn't Jasper Tudor, but as you say, there had to have been namesakes down through the years.
Also, I would guess the figure on the front isn't the Virgin Mary, who isn't usually shown holding a large cross like that. Much more likely to be St. Helena, who supposedly discovered the "True Cross" in 326 CE and spread relics of it far and wide. Makes sense for a reliquary, and St. Helena is often shown in art holding a large cross just like the figure on the reliquary. Not sure what the five bleeding hearts would mean. Possibly a device or badge of the owner?
One does have to wonder about the "experts" they have vetting the thing!
In the story you linked to, I could see there was writing on another side of the pendant, so I dug around to see what I could find. Another site (BBC) showed another side of the pendant, which read "balthasar." So "iaspar" is Caspar after all, and no doubt a third side says "melchior" --- the third of the three wise kings. Given the five wounds of Christ on the back, I am going to go with Mary as the one holding the cross, as Mater Dolorosa. The Helen idea is a really good one though --- but I'd expect her to have a crown.
Oh, I'm a dope --- I see you already added the BBC link.
You're not a dope!! I added the video late last night.
I saw the Balthasar, too...I agree, it must be the three Wise men. I wonder why the goldsmith made the K in Kaspar/Caspar so funny. It's fun to speculate, but maybe I should stick with poems rather than images!
Thanks for sharing your insights, Lucy!
Yes, I heard this story. Amazing. I heard the interview with his dad.
Fascinating how the writer in us, imagines how the pendant ended up there. I always do that whenever I hear of such big finds although I wouldn't have your skills to bring it alive (I'm more women's fiction than historical fiction.)
Good to have found your blog Julianne
warm wishes
Thanks for your kind wishes, Bluestocking! I send my own for your quick recovery from surgery. Stay positive! Christmas will be here soon. :)
That's really amazing. It's so intriguing to speculate about the original owner....
Post a Comment