Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Rectagonal with vertical rim pierced with intersecting loops: Rivetted corners. Dark crimson japan. The centre is decorated with an inscribed view of the of the Old Hall at Kelmarsh, Northamptonshire, painted in gold shaded with brown and green. Three of the corners similarly painted in gold with naturalistic flowers shaded in brown. Black japan to underside. The view and inscription are closely copied from an engraving by J. Mynde reproduced in John Bridges, History of Northamptonshire 1791. Though this work was not published untill 1791 its illustrations were prepared shortly before the author's death in 1724 and the plates were dispersed in the interval. Kelmarsh was the seat of a branch of the Hanbury family. The Old Hall was demolished down, and a new building erected by John Gibbs in 1728-32.

At the centre of this tray is a depiction of the Old Hall at Kelmarsh, painted in gold shaded with brown and green. It is inscribed 'The East View of the Old Hall at Kelmarsh in NORTHAMPTONSHIRE The seat of the late Thomas Hanbury Esq', suggesting that the tray was made for the antiquarian William Hanbury who had the Jacobean Old Hall at Kelmarsh demolished and rebuilt in the fashionable Palladian style to designs by John Gibbs, from 1728-32. The view is closely based on an engraving by J Mynde for John Bridges’ History of Northamptonshire, published in 1791 but engraved around 1724. The National Museum’s tray has been discovered to be one of a set of three showing different views of the building, the other two of which still survive at Kelmarsh Hall.