The Hidden Jewels of the Cheapside Hoard Secret Knowledge

Once they were hidden in the dark.

Now, they sparkle in the light.

But 100 years since they were unearthed from a London cellar,

the jewels of the Cheapside Hoard

remain as marvellous and mysterious as ever.

Now for the first time,

this breathtaking treasure from the time of Shakespeare

is being brought together for exhibition

at the Museum of London.

I'm Shaun Leane.

As a goldsmith and jewellery designer,

I've created avant-garde pieces for musicians like Bjork

and fashion designers like Alexander McQueen.

I'm fascinated by how traditional craft skills can be applied

to sophisticated modern jewellery.

But I'm also intrigued by the deeper meaning of jewels -

how beneath the surface glitter,

there's the stamp of something much more personal.

That's why I've become so bewitched by the Cheapside Hoard.

These beautifully made pieces might be three-and-a-half centuries old,

but they're full of amazing stories -

stories about the people who wore them

and the people who made them.

The workmanship that went into that...

The detail - I don't think I've ever seen a chain so beautiful,

to be honest.

There's so much about the Cheapside Hoard

that I want to discover.

Who did the collection belong to?

Why was it buried?

And why was it forgotten?

Do you think that one of these soldiers

could have been responsible for burying the Hoard?

It's quite possible.

I've been given behind-the-scenes access to the exhibition

and allowed the once-in-a-lifetime chance

to handle some of these spellbinding jewels.

I'm dying to have a look at this.

-It's just a tour de force, really.

-Unbelievable.

It's an experience that's revealed a world even more exciting -

and sometimes darker - than I could ever have imagined.

This is a tale of fire and forgery, intrigue and murder.

But it's also a story of deep devotion, astonishing skill

and breathtaking beauty.

Cheapside - right at the heart of the City of London

and a place where old and new collide.

They've been demolishing and rebuilding here for centuries -

and it's thrown up some unexpected treasures.

In 1912, a gang of workmen

were demolishing an old building which stood on 30-32 Cheapside -

somewhere here, above my head.

They dug down as far as the cellars

when one of them struck his pickaxe into the floor.

When he levered it back,

he noticed something glittering amongst the earth -

something that looked like gold.

Something that looked like jewels.

The Cheapside Hoard contains everything

from enamelled necklaces to rock crystal tankards,

from crucifixes to cameos.

Most of the nearly 500 pieces

seem to date to the early 17th century,

but the collection covers a bewildering range

of styles and periods.

This is just such an extraordinary gem, really,

and it just shows us, I think you can see here,

the head of a woman in profile.

It's an Egyptian agate

and it was cut in the second or third century BC.

That's unbelievable - it's so precise, isn't it?

The detail...

If you look really closely,

you can even see the feather outlines

on the headdress.

That might be a clue to the identity of this lady.

Who do you think this may be?

There are two possibilities - either it's Berenice II

or, much more likely, Cleopatra.

Oh, really?

It's been in circulation for the best part of...what,

nearly 2,000 years, perhaps,

before it ended up underneath a cellar floor.

I mean, I think this is what's so fascinating about the Hoard.

You've got both ends of the spectrum -

this really old, beautiful piece,

then you have the emerald watch fob, which is...

It's almost a modern piece.

You really look at that stone and think,

the facets are so clean, so linear...

-It's just a tour de force, really.

-Unbelievable.

That's a pretty big...pretty big emerald.

It's whopping!

How my mind works, as a jeweller,

is what kind of size rough do you need

to cut all those facets and get this shape?

I'm estimating you would need about 150 carats of rough to cut this.

I suppose the burning question is who would this have belonged to?

I just wish we knew.

It has to have belonged to somebody with incredible wealth.

-Royal?

-It's entirely possible.

Maybe one of the most amazing things about the priceless jewels

in the Cheapside Hoard

isn't that they were discovered,

but that they didn't just disappear again.

The fact that the Cheapside Hoard was saved intact

is really down to one man -

the unforgettably named "Stoney Jack" Lawrence.

George "Stoney Jack" Lawrence was a pawnbroker,

but a pawnbroker with a difference.

He combined his hard-nosed business interests

with a passion for saving London's archaeological past.

Stoney Jack was well-known amongst the navvies

working on London's building sites for offering top prices

for any unusual items that they happened to dig up.

The workmen who stumbled across the Cheapside Hoard

were soon knocking at Stoney Jack's door.

Within a few weeks,

he had paid out for hundreds of astonishing pieces

which he in turn sold on to the new Museum of London.

Over a century on from Stoney Jack's remarkable rescue job,

painstaking work on the Cheapside Hoard continues.

So, Catherine, what are the pieces you're working on now?

Well, these are some of the chains from the Hoard,

and what I'm doing at the moment

is actually preparing them for mounting.

We face quite a challenge in how to display them

because of the incredibly fragile enamel.

So what we've been doing

is stitching them to these brass wires,

which have been coated in a protective plastic coating,

so that then, they can be hung up in the case.

We quite like this idea of stitching,

because I think that's something that would've been done originally.

It's how they originally were worn, weren't they?

I've studied portraits, and it was beautiful,

they way that they draped these chains -

they would be sewn to the shoulders and draped along the dress,

and actually hanging down the arms as well.

I've seen them actually have the chains,

the enamel chains, hanging down their dress

with a fob watch on the end, as well,

so they would have chipped very quickly.

You do wonder how long they would have survived, actually,

if they hadn't been buried.

Because, you know, the enamel's so fragile on there -

I'm sure eventually people would have just thrown them away

because the enamel would've started coming away,

and you'd re-use the diamonds.

The fragile jewels contained in the Cheapside Hoard

might have survived intact for three-and-a-half centuries,

but Cheapside itself has not.

Like many parts of London,

this place has changed almost out of all recognition.

In the 17th century,

this was the city's major thoroughfare,

and the glittering heart of the jewellery trade.

There are still jewellery shops here today,

but to get a real sense of Cheapside's golden age,

you have to turn up one of its side streets.

This is Goldsmiths' Hall -

the headquarters of the powerful guild

who once owned and oversaw

many of the jewellers' premises in London.

-Hi, Shaun.

-Very nice to meet you.

I'm meeting up with David Beasley,

the Company of Goldsmiths' librarian,

to try and get a picture of what Cheapside was like

at the time of the Hoard.

This is part of the estate plans done in the late 17th century,

and it shows Cheapside and the property owned by the company.

And this is the area which was commonly known as Goldsmiths' Row,

a prominent shopping area for goldsmiths and silversmiths.

So it was the jewellery quarter of London at the time?

Very much so, yes.

So, looking at these shop fronts, they're pretty small.

-Yes, I think they were.

-How big do you think they'd have been?

I think maybe five to ten feet,

maybe 15 feet in width, as it were.

-Much smaller than they would be today.

-So here we have 30-32,

which is the building where the Hoard was buried.

Do we have any idea who occupied that building at that time?

We have some idea. We have a rent book here from 1610, and this

details some of the ownership and leases which people had.

And if we look in this section here we know that Alexander Prescott

had a tenement, which we think is in the area of 30-32,

and we know that Mary Wakefield took on a lease of this in 1632.

So...could Mary Wakefield have been the person who buried the Hoard?

It's possible,

but one of the problems is there was a lot of subletting,

so the person who owned the lease was not necessarily

the person in occupation of the shop or a particular part of the property.

We'll probably never be able to put a name to the person who hid

the Cheapside Hoard.

But because it was buried under Goldsmiths' Row,

we can be fairly sure that it belonged to a working jeweller.

It's likely that this fabulous collection was a

goldsmith's stock in trade -

with pieces for sale, repair and recycling.

And there's another aspect of the Hoard that we can guess at...

..what the place where the jewels were produced in looked like.

So welcome to our workshop.

These are my craftsmen - Olly, Pedro and Duncan.

Now, if a craftsman from the period of the Cheapside Hoard was to

walk in here today, he would see

a lot of similarities to the workshop he would have practised in.

Not much has changed, we use the same skins underneath the benches

to catch the gold lemel - which is the gold dust - which is recycled.

And we use the same kind of pliers, little drills, the files

and even the tools that we use to form and forge pieces

are very similar to what they would have used in those days.

Duncan's making a bespoke messenger pendant.

We were commissioned by one of my clients who wanted me

to create something really beautiful and sentimental for their loved one.

I think there are some similarities between this piece we're

creating and some of the pieces in the Cheapside Hoard.

We've taken a very similar silhouette from the aglets

they used to wear on their clothing.

They used these aglets to fasten with ribbons

and fabric the big puffy arms they used to wear.

We liked that silhouette, so we thought

we would use the same shape and form to create this pendant.

It's made from 18-carat white gold, set with savarite diamonds,

then a secret lover's message would be sealed into the piece.

I think one of the beautiful things about the Cheapside Hoard

was you could see a real evolution of sentiment,

and we're still following it through today in pieces that we're making.

Over the centuries London's jewellery trade migrated westward

from Cheapside, eventually settling in the area around Hatton Garden.

This is where I did my apprenticeship

and where I'm still based.

Hatton Garden is home to craftsmen and traders from all over the world.

It was a similar picture three-and-a-half centuries ago.

At the time of the Cheapside Hoard London's jewellery trade was

dominated by emigre families - French Huguenots,

craftsmen from the Low Countries, goldsmiths from Germany.

This was an international business in an international city.

And it wasn't just the people involved in the jewel trade

who came from overseas - it was the jewels themselves.

In the Cheapside Hoard there are gemstones from

many parts of the world.

Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, turquoise from Persia,

pearls from Bahrain.

And here, in this really beautiful jewel in the form of a salamander...

-He's a cute little thing, isn't he?

-..are emeralds from Colombia.

-And you might make out in the tail...

-Yeah, I can see the small rose cuts.

-..little, tiny diamonds.

-And where do you think they were from?

Well, I think the diamonds came from Burma or India,

so, in this one jewel, you have the bringing together of the old

and new world, and London at the crossroads

of this international, very sophisticated trade.

He's almost staring at you, isn't he?

And I notice he's got a little tongue in there.

You can just make out on the white enamel

tiny little black dots to indicate teeth.

And, on the underside, little flecks to indicate scaling.

When I was an apprentice, I was always taught

a piece of jewellery should look just as fine and beautiful

from the back as it should the front.

And what a perfect example.

So you mention, in the Hoard,

there are many different stones from all over the world.

My question is - how those stones all got here,

and was it quite a risky business?

It certainly was.

There's one document which refers to a jeweller - a Dutchman -

who'd spent about 30 years abroad gathering up gemstones and jewels.

That collection must have been outstanding.

Certainly from the accounts of the time, the crew of the ship were

just amazed by what they saw, one of them described his cabin

as almost afire with jewels shining.

-Then, on the voyage back, it seems he was poisoned.

-Oh, my goodness.

And his body was tossed overboard, and, once the ship arrived

off the English coast, the ship's carpenter jumped ship with the booty.

And headed up to the capital.

He then tried to sell this material on the London market.

Could some of these stones have ended up in the Hoard?

There were many hundreds of thousands of them and it's entirely possible.

Yeah, it is, isn't it?

'Londoners' love of dressing up and adornment

'fuelled the international jewel trade.

'For the growing merchant class, wearing expensive jewellery

'was a way of signalling their new-found status and confidence.'

This is Margaret Cotton, the wife of a wealthy merchant.

You can see here she's wearing a ring on her little finger,

just as we would do today.

But up here you can see she's also had one sowed into her ruff.

Rings and other jewels were also attached to girdles and cuffs -

basically anywhere you could show off your wealth.

Whether nouveau-riche or royalty,

high society in the early 17th century

was all about display.

Wealthy women piled their hair high

with eye-catching clasps and droplets.

Fashionable men wore jewels sewn into their caps and cloaks.

Even as fashions became simpler and more restrained,

ordinary items like buttons could be still encrusted with gemstones.

With such a demand for jewels and such large profits to be made,

it maybe wasn't surprising

that some traders were prepared to cut corners.

So, Hazel, what do we have here? Two very different-looking objects.

And intriguing objects too.

Let's just start with this one, two fabulous sapphires

and a very valuable gemstone, all from Sri Lanka.

Beautiful piece.

The spinel has been drilled from both ends.

The cutter's made a bit of an error, he's started drilling

and gone completely off-line.

Rather like a zig-zaggy caterpillar all the way through.

I bet he was quite angry with himself,

but you only get one go, I suppose.

He must have been very annoyed.

Particularly because the material was so valuable.

So, there was a real market for counterfeits, and this is one.

Now it may not look it now, because the colour has faded,

but, when this was first made, it was probably akin in colour to that.

I was wondering what the subject was.

So, what this was meant to look like was the rough spinel,

and therefore very, very valuable stone.

A man called Thomas Sympson, a jeweller in Cheapside,

had a business or sideline in counterfeiting spinels.

And what I think he probably did was rock crystal was heated,

to a kind of red hot,

and then dropped into a bucket or container

of cold dye-impregnated water,

and that quench crackling, as it's known, induced thermal shock,

opening up the fissures in the stone, and then the dye could filtrate in.

Did he make a lot of money out of this counterfeit business?

These were being sold at £7,000 or £8,000 apiece.

Oh, my goodness. That's a lot of money in those days.

-A huge amount of money.

-Gosh! What a rogue.

-Yes, absolutely.

What a rogue.

'Policing the jewellery trade

'was one of the main jobs of the company of goldsmiths.

'In the courtroom at their headquarters near Cheapside,

'they could pass stiff sentences on jewellers

'found guilty of having sold substandard or counterfeit goods.

'Today, the goldsmiths company still has a major role in quality control.

'In the back rooms of Goldsmiths' hall, gold and silver is tested

'for purity, literally to check whether it comes up to scratch.

'It's a process that hasn't changed since the 17th century.

'Jewels also come to the office to be stamped with

'the famous leopard head hallmark.

'It's one of the oldest brand logos in the world, identifying

'a jewel that's made in London, and giving its quality in carats

'and its year of manufacture.'

But, when it comes to the Cheapside Hoard, there's a problem.

Although larger pieces of gold and silver

were routinely hallmarked in the 17th century,

none of the jewels from the Hoard were ever stamped, so when it comes

to dating the Hoard, we have to rely on other clues.

What we have here is a watch.

It's a really sophisticated timepiece with calendar indications.

The detail on it is beautiful.

But also, thankfully, it bears the signature of the maker.

The initial "G" and then "Ferlite" for Gaultier Ferlite.

-Do we know this watchmaker?

-Thankfully, yes.

His father worked as the pastor of the Italian church in London,

and then, after his death, his mother remarried,

and the small family moved back to Geneva,

and then Gaultier was apprentice clock/watchmaker, and by the

turn of the century - 1590/1600 - was master of the company.

-The watch probably dates to about 1610-1620.

-Oh, really?

But the really crucial bit of dating evidence for the Hoard is this

tiny piece. So, from a quite large object, to something really small.

So small that it's been completely overlooked.

-This is a small carnelian seal, is it?

-Exactly.

And, even with the damage, you can just about work out

that it's the heraldic badge of William Howard, Viscount Stafford.

Now, Lord Stafford was created Viscount in 1640.

So this little gem really is a very important part of the Hoard

cos it gives us the date.

The presence of this tiny little piece indicates that the Hoard

has to have been buried after 1640.

William Howard's triumph at becoming a viscount wasn't long lasting.

This was the tense lead up to the English Civil War,

and because the Howards had Catholic and Royalist sympathies,

they left for the Continent.

'In 1649, the same year as the king was executed,

'Lord Howard's estate was seized by Parliament.

'It's possible that the family jewels were sold off at this time,

'finding their way into the Cheapside Hoard.

'Could the Civil War help answer that other great mystery?

'Why was the Hoard buried?

'And why was it never retrieved?'

David, do you think the Civil War

had a big impact on the Cheapside jewellery trade?

I think it definitely did. We don't have many references,

but there is this entry in January, 1643, when the beadle

who collects the subscription, if you like, from the company,

who says he's been doing it for 18 years, and this last half year

he's tried to collect money from people,

but he says there's no-one to collect it from.

He says, "Some have gone for soldiers and many shops shut up."

So, do you think that one of these soldiers could've been

responsible for burying the Hoard, and then unfortunately

went off to war and got killed and never came back to reclaim it?

It's quite possible and it seems to fit reasonably well with

dating of the objects in the Hoard, so that is certainly one possibility.

And do you think there could've been any other reasons

why somebody would bury a hoard?

There were, from time to time, bouts of plague,

and that was of course another reason why things might have been buried.

Fear of getting the plague, where people would perhaps

bury their worldly goods and then take off out of the city.

Why not just take your stock with you?

I suppose there was the fear that you may not be sure

where you're going to and for how long,

and it might be safer to bury it in one fixed place, and then

you could return when times were better and more certain, perhaps.

'Civil war and plague might be reason why the Hoard was buried

'and forgotten, but there is another intriguing possibility,

'and it lies in that other great calamity of the 17th century.'

The Great Fire of London.

Cheapside was ground zero - pretty much the dead centre

of the huge swathe of the city destroyed by the great fire.

Id you'd been here on Wednesday, 5th September, 1666,

you would've had to pick your way through a smouldering ruin

of charred timbers and globs of melted glass and lead.

Cheapside had been totally wiped out.

'But below ground, it was a different story.

'There were deep cellars down here

'that survived the devastating fire storm.

'When the Goldsmiths company

'eventually rebuilt their property on 30-32 Cheapside,

'they just used the old, undamaged vaults as foundations.

'And it was in the pre-fire layout that the demolition gang

'discovered the Hoard centuries later.

'So, was the Hoard buried by someone fleeing the inferno?

'Someone who, for whatever reason, wasn't able to dig it up again.'

It's a romantic idea, isn't it? The fire that destroyed London,

preserving this perfect time capsule of its past.

But the truth is,

there's actually not much more evidence to support it, than

any of the other theories that have been suggested from time to time.

In the end, the hoard of jewels discovered here beneath Cheapside

is going to have to remain a mystery, and I think

that's at least partially why we're still so entranced by it.

The Cheapside Hoard is magical,

alluring, truly wonderful. As you walk around the exhibition,

you're constantly dazzled, not just by the beauty of the pieces,

but by the tantalising traces of vibrant human lives.

If I could take any piece home from the Cheapside Hoard,

it would have to be this exquisite scent bottle.

Made from gold, coated in enamel, and set with beautiful gemstones.

You have Hungarian opals, Indian diamonds,

sapphires - pink and blue - from Sri Lanka.

When I saw it first, I instinctively wanted to pick it up

and smell the scent. Obviously that evaporated hundreds of years ago,

but the woman who owned it, how did she wear this scent bottle?

Was it round her neck? Did she drape it off her dress?

While driving through the smelly streets of London in those days,

a smell from this bottle, was that her escape?

This is a truly exquisite piece of jewellery.

I hoped the lady who owned this treasured it as much as I do.

One of the reason that we're so entranced by gold and gemstones

is because their beauty never fades.

But I think the jewels of The Cheapside Hoard

offer something even more compelling.

A magical glimpse into the vanished lives of those who have gone before.

Their pride, greed and deceit. Their love, joy and devotion.

All expressed through these objects of timeless beauty.

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