‘Keep moving, no standing still,’ was chief Geezer Eddie’s order of the day, not wanting to lose anyone into the collections of the Society of Antiquaries (SAL) as we entered its venerable portal. A society of historians and archaeologists founded in 1707, since 1874 the SAL has had its home in Burlington House, Piccadilly, which it shares with the Royal Academy (RA) and four other learned societies, the Royal Astronomical Society included.
Michelle Johansen of the learning & outreach team welcomed us and explained the SAL’s origins in the interests of its founders, its history and how its members’ gifts shaped the development of its unique museum and library.
We saw the incomparable collection of Tudor royal portraits, including Bloody Mary (just back from a stay in the Metropolitan, New York) and had time to browse in the reading room, before being introduced to Michelle’s library and museum colleagues. Becky Loughead and Kate Bagnall had brought out artefacts specially calculated to slake the Geezers’s thirst for anything pub-related.
Out of the library’s significant collection of satirical and scurrilous printed broadsides from the 16th century onwards, Becky showed us examples targeting churchgoers who’d stolen and drunk away the alms for the poor.
Topographical drawings of the old Bow bridge and of Romano-British findings at Old Ford piqued the interest of the local historian Geezers.
Kate showed us the extraordinarily intact Greek red figure vase, around 2,500 years old. Getting closer to home, we saw a pair of Bartmann / Bellarmine jars. Kate saved the real Eastenders to the end: the Shadwell forgery ‘Billys and Charleys’ were fake pilgrim badges made to fool avid 19th century collectors of mudlarker finds. ‘At least our patina is real,’ one Geezer was heard to say.
Nobody was left behind as a museum object and we all got away home. But we’ll be back.
Our thanks for their warm welcome also go to Dominic Wallis, the Society’s development manager, and Lingyi Guo, on placement from the Museums and Galleries in Education MA course at UCL. Our visit was part of the Sensing History project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which aims to share the Society of Antiquaries’ collections and building with new audiences.
Jon Alexander
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The Society of Antiquaries welcomes visitors on Friday.
Its current exhibition, celebrating 150 years at Burlington House, is ‘The Reign’, featuring 20 new artworks by Adam Dant and Dan Llywelyn Hall, inspired by items from the Society’s historic collection.