Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 20. (Budapest, 2001)

Ildikó PANDUR - John WADE: A Unique Piece of Jewellery in the Collection of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts: A Souvenir from the Colony of Victoria, Australia

ILDIKÓ PANDÚR - JOHN WADE

1 A UNIQUE PIECE OF JEWELLERY IN THE COLLECTION OF THE MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS: A SOUVENIR FROM THE COLONY OF VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA "Lor était partout, en abondance, à la surface du sol; les ruisseaux coulaient sur un lit de métal; on en trouvait jusque dans les rues de Melbourne; on macadamisait avec de la poudre d'or." Jules Verne: Les enfants du Capitaine Grant

2 In the Metalwork Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts is a particularly well-wrought, engraved, cast golden ring whose very proportions make it a remarkable piece (pictures 1 and 2).

3 What makes it really unique, however, is that, as their inscriptions suggest, its secret compartments hide nuggets, apparently fewer than there originally were, from the gold mines of Australia. Covered by the cap on the bezel of the ring are four small (empty) compartments whose contents are likely to have been protected by glass windows as there are no signs of solder. Hinged, wing-like flaps, elaborately engraved, on either side of the broad hoop cover a series of crescent-shaped niches, each somewhat larger than the one below it, and each containing tiny gold nuggets soldered inside. Due to the precision of the execution, the movable parts of the ring are hardly noticeable. The outlines of a shield appear in the middle of the large cap on the bezel, also composed of gold granules soldered on. Part of the shield is embellished with foliation engraved asymmetrically, and the smooth surface displays traces of something that was fastened on at three points. The ornament once applied onto the ring (with two studs and at one point with soldering) was already missing when the piece was acquired for the Museum collection (pictures 3 and 4).

4 Australian silver and gold is not stamped with official hallmarks. The ring bears as the maker's mark the initials HE, a crowned lion facing to the right, and a crown. It was considered to this day as a piece made in the last third of the 19th century in London (picture 5).

5 The present attempt at rectifying this classification coincides with the 150th anniversary of the first Australian Gold Rush, an event commemorated with large-scale programmes and exhibitions all over Australia.

6 On 12 February 1851, Edward Hammond Hargraves struck gold at Summer Hill Creek, New South Wales (picture 6). Although the event is regarded as the basis of the anniversary, many of Hargraves' own contemporaries questioned the precedence of his discovery, and not without reason. As early as 1823, there had been reports of gold discovered in south-eastem Australia, but the authorities, fearing massive losses of agricultural labour, hushed up news of the finds.

7 What largely contributed to the change in official policy was the outbreak of the Gold Rush in America. Thousands of Australian colonists emigrated to California in the wake of the legendary finds in 1848. The resulting drainage of labour delivered a blow to the economy of New South Wales, and Governor Charles FitzRoy convinced the British Government to send out a geologist, Samuel Stutchbury, to survey the territory. The compartments of the ring in Budapest feature four engraved inscriptions: "Ballaarat,