Through to the Medieval Gallery to see the Lewis Chessmen. These wonderful pieces were found in the vicinity of Uig on the Isle of Lewis some around1831. It is believed that they were buried here for safe keeping on route to be traded in Ireland. At this period, the Western Isles were part of Norway, not Scotland, which is were the pieces were believed to have been made around AD 1150-1200. These pieces are fascinating,elaborately worked out of walrus ivory and whales' teeth in the forms of seated kings and queens, bishops, knights on their mounts, standing warders and pawns in the shape of obelisks. David also explained to us the history behind the game of chees which began in India and spread across to Persia. It wasn’t adopted by Europe until the 1500’s as it had been viewed with suspicion by the church.
The Portland Vase is another gem in the museums collection, which dates from about AD 5-25 in Rome. Apparently there are only about 400 antique cameo vases in the world, of which this is the most famous. This is probably because the technique is so highly skilled, using a dip-overlay method, whereby an elongated bubble of glass was partially dipped into a fire-resistant container of white glass, before the two were blown together. After cooling the white layer was cut away to form the design. The cutting was usually done by a skilled gem-cutter. This vase was broken apparently by a vandal in the 1800s and in the intervening years has been broken and reassembled using ever improving techniques so that now only a few splinters remain unattached.
The British Museum contains 11 fragments of wall painting from the tomb of Nebamun.
The paintings show scenes of daily life and include images of banquets, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and scenes of offerings. These are apparently some of the finest paintings to survive from ancient Egypt.
The Chinese Ceramics Room is definitely one to come back and visit in more depth. Originally owned by Sir Percival David, this forms the largest collection of porcelain which was in private hands. This gallery holds almost 1,700 objects, dating from the 3rd to the 20th Century. It is also a gallery which is clearly overlooked by most of the public, as apart from our small group, very few people were in there – in contrast to the throng of visitors we had been fighting our way through.
This one, estimated to weigh four tons, was collected by the crew of the English ship HMS Topaze, on their visit to Easter Island in 1868 to carry out surveying work. It was then presented to Queen Victoria, who gifted it to the British Museum in 1869 (must be a difficult present to find house room for, even in a palace!)
Our tour was now nearing the 90 minute mark as we went to see probably the most talked about exhibit in the museums collection – the Rosetta Stone. Dating back to Egypt in 196 BC, this piece is so important as it is the key to about 80% of what we know about hieroglyphs. Such is it’s popularity that there is a ‘stunt’ stone which is available for visitors to touch and feel. The real one is of such importance that during the First World War, it was transported, along with many other museum objects, to the safety of the underground tunnels near Holborn.
Although our time was now officially over, David kindly offered to talk us through the Assyrian sculpture and Balawat Gates and then onto the Elgin Marbles. With the tour now at 2 hours, we were even offered a private tour of anything that we had specifically wanted to see. This is definitely a hidden gem of a tour, at only £12, I felt I had been given a tour of world history in 120 minutes. Well done British Museum!