Scottish Gold - at the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow
17th Mar 2014 10:46 UTCRoy Starkey 🌟 Manager
I called-in to see this exhibition en-route back from a mountaineering week in the NW Highlands. The exhibition, which opened on 14th March, features the fascinating history of gold in Scotland, the search for the precious metal, specimens of ore and the three largest nuggets, and an impressive array of artefacts dating back to the Bronze age.
The story of Scottish gold is traced back 4000 years, and includes artefacts associated with Robert the Bruce, Charles I, Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Victoria. Prehistoric ornaments include the largest known hoard of gold torcs from the Iron Age. The various applications of gold are illustrated with examples from the worlds of electronics, medicine, coinage, jewellery, and other decorative uses.
Mineral specimens include samples of gold from worldwide localities, such as California, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Australia, with a particularly striking example being an acid-etched nugget (about 6 x 5 cm) from Coolgardie, Australia, on loan from the NHM (London), which reveals an interesting, and remarkably coarse, polycrystalline structure.
Specimens of ore from the Cononish gold prospect at Tyndrum are featured, together with notable old-time specimens. A superb specimen from Rosia-Montana, Romania, formerly in the collection of Henry Heuland, caught my eye, as did a striking dendritic gold on quartz (which resembles a chicken), from Zimbabwe (loaned from the NHM, London). Other exhibits include material from Ireland, Fool’s Gold, “fakes”, and several large Scottish nuggets (weighing up to 65 g).
A good selection of panned gold from various Scottish localities, including several phials from the Bob Sutherland Collection (exhibited at Munch this year), gives a rounded appreciation of the potential for this precious metal in Highland rivers.
The famous sheep’s jawbone, encrusted with gold (and attributed to cropping grass rich in gold) is on loan from Angus Council Museums, the Forteviot Dagger (dating to about 2000 BC) is an early Bronze Age relic decorated with gold.
The artefacts section includes some truly wonderful examples of exquisite craftsmanship, and taking pride of place here are 26 gold torcs (ranging from 80 – 120 mm diameter) from the Law Farm Hoard, reunited here for the first time since they were originally recovered and sold to various different institutions back in 1857.
The Hunterian has also produced an excellent, full-colour book to accompany the exhibition – “Scottish Gold – Fruit of the Nation”. Written by Dr Neil Clark, a curator of palaeontology at the Hunterian, and enthusiastic amateur panner, this features images of the various exhibits, and provides much interesting background information on Scottish gold. The book is available from the Museum, and on Amazon.
Full details and opening times etc. are available on the Hunterian Website http://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/visit/exhibitions/major%20exhibitions/scottishgold/ and the exhibition runs until 15 June 2014.
If you are passing through Glasgow in the next couple of months, do call in and have a look. Please note however that this exhibition is in the Art Gallery building across the road from the main museum where the other mineral displays are (which are also very much worth a visit if you’ve not been before).
Roy Starkey
