Three Crusader Era Copper Objects w/ Victorian Case

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Fine Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic Art

By Artemis Gallery

Aug 22, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-08-22 10:00:00 2019-08-22 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Fine Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/fine-ancient-asian-ethnographic-art-4348
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• Lot Description
  Made in Europe and found in the Middle East, Crusader Era (three copper objects), ca. 1189 to 1291 CE, and Europe, Great Britain/United Kingdom, Victorian Era (wooden box), ca. second half of the 1800s CE. A charming velvet- and felt-lined, leather covered wooden box containing a trio of small copper alloy medallions - two disc-shaped, one with a partially rotated cross on its face, the other with a more complex motif, as well as a third which is shield-shaped. A small incised plaque inside the box states that these were found at Acre, famous for two major sieges during the Crusades - one from 1189 to 1191, the other in 1291. The latter is one of the most significant Crusader losses, when the Mamluks took the Crusader-controlled city and essentially ended the European occupation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem aside from a few small outposts. These small copper artifacts were likely collected by a Victorian tourist on a trip to visit what was then Ottoman-controlled Palestine. Size of largest medallion: 1.35" W (3.4 cm); size of box: 3.8" W x 1.1" H (9.7 cm x 2.8 cm)
  
  Who was this tourist? The ovoid box the artifacts are contained within has a gilded name and address stamped into its velvet interior: "Mr. Read, Dental Surgeon, 4 Holles Street, Cavendish Sq., London W." It is unclear if the box was repurposed for holding these artifacts - according to the "Court Journal and Fashionable Gazette" of 1859, Mr. Read, whose office was in the Marylebone area of London, made "incorrodible [sic] mineral teeth… in pure gold, bone, or gutta percha", so the box may have originally contained teeth - or was owned by Mr. Read himself. Victorians with the means to travel were fascinated by the Holy Land. The creation of the Suez Canal and establishment of the British Protectorate, as well as the growth of the middle class, facilitated tourism to the region. Coinciding with the rise of archaeology as a popular pursuit, we can easily imagine a well-to-do Victorian man or woman proudly collecting these copper medallions and treasuring them in a small box for posterity.
  
  Provenance: private Green collection, United Kingdom
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
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  #146950

  Condition

  Copper artifacts all have thick patina and wear commensurate with having been exposed to the elements for a long period of time as they were likely surface finds by a tourist. The box also shows signs of wear commensurate with age, with the lettering on the interior faded and the leather exterior scuffed and lightly scratched.
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