T H E G O T L A N D I C C O L L E C T I O N O F JAMES

CURLE OF MELROSE (1862-1944)

James Curle j- collectio?~of Gotlandic atrtiquities is one of the most remarkable monumetrts of British archaeologicalactirit~'
abroad during the late nineteenth century. Its specialized nature, and high/'$selectire chronologicalandgeographical range, are
u~usualalthough not wholly without parallel. The material was acquired with the actire assistance of sorne of the most
distinguishedprofPssionalarchaeologistsin Sweden. The importance of the collection has long been underestin~utedbecause ojan
alnrost total lack of documentation, but recent researches hare begun to rereal some of its potential.

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T H EBritish Museum has one of the most extensive sented to the Trustees of the British Xluseum by
collections of continental early-medieval objects in Lady Cameron of Lochbroom, in memory of James
the world, numbering some j,ooo pieces. They have Curle. Various fragments of lecture notes later came
been acquired from the 1840s until the present day, to light, also in private possession. Letters from
and their range continues to be actively extended. Curle, surviving in archives both in London and
Among this material, one of the most significant Stockholm, were supplemented by a major find in
acquisitions was purchased in 1921 with the aid of the
National Art-Collections Fund. It was the greater
part of the collection of Gotlandic antiquities formed
by James Curle of Melrose between 1888 and 1902
(Fig. 1). Consisting of some 400 archaeological
objects and some roo coins, predominantly of the first
millennium so, it remains the most significant collec-
tion of Nordic antiquities outside Scandinavia. The
best objects rival in quality anything to be seen on
public display in Stockholm or in Visby, principal
town of the island of Gotland.
In common with other groups in this curatorial
area, the significance of the Curle collection has
remained almost entirely unappreciated, since for
decades it has lacked all background documentation
to explain how it was built up, and under what
circumstances the material was originally found. It
has becn the work of some years to try to establish as
far as possible a sound history and up-to-date
identifications.' Background information about the
objects seems never to have been required as a condi-
tion of purchase, and subsequent changes in the
Curle family's domestic and office premises resultcd
in the disappearance of a large part of nhateber
documentation did exist. .4n incomplete manuscript
inventory written by Curle around 1902, and clearlj
unfinished, was rediscovered in private hands in I . I 4 photograph probabl! of James Curle, c. lkp. Keprcl-
Edinburgh during 1988. It was subsequently pre- B. Linehan.
duced b! courtes) of l l r s
C O\ford Lnl\erwt! I'rw 11,r~ q i ) - h h j o 94
 DAFYDD KIDD
2
Visby. What other letters from Curie may lie among survive which enables us to examine aspects of this
the effects of his contemporaries is a question that earlier, Victorian, phase of his antiquarian activity,
remains to be answered by other researchers. and to speculate about its influence on his later
James Curie would require little introduction to a work.7
Scottish audience. He was born in 1862 at Melrose, James was the eldest of three brothers whose
Roxburghshire (now Borders Region), and he died upbringing fostered an interest in antiquities.
there in 1944, aged almost eighty-two. His researches Alexander's record is quite explicit:
on behalf of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
into the Roman frontier post of Newstead (Tri- . . our father though one could hardly term him an
pontium) gained him a European reputation. Excava- Antiquary yet possessed a great interest in the subject and
tions began there in 1905, and a two-volume work when he had a day in Edinburgh rarely failed to spend some
time of it in conversation with Dr Joseph Anderson then the
appeared in 1911 which was widely acknowledged as distinguished curator of the National Museum of An-
3
setting a standard in archaeological publication. He tiquities. As we boys had often, rather unwillingly to take
held several honorary distinctions for his antiquarian part in such visits we grew up with an elementary knowledge
researches, including a Doctorate of Law from of the bases of modern archaeology which in consequence
Aberdeen University. In 1908 he became one of the we never required to learn. We had in fact absorbed it

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Curators for the National Galleries of Scotland, and among the Museum cases in those early days of our lives.8
in 1925 he was invited to become a Royal Commis-
sioner for Historical Monuments. Throughout his His cultured family background and secure financial
working life he was a busy lawyer with a full-time circumstances allowed Curie to pursue a European
occupation in the family firm at Melrose. Because of dimension to his curiosity about the past. His parents
his professional and family commitments he was regularly went on holiday to the Continent, and as a
intensely interested in local matters, particularly in young man he himself visited Italy in the company of
the archaeology of the immediate Lowlands area in an uncle. Alexander records that after this experience
which Newstead lies. But through his friendships James became a keen traveller abroad, and he
with archaeologists, and in collaboration with his travelled widely in the 1890s to the United States,
younger brother, Alexander Ormiston Curie, he France and Germany.
exerted a much wider influence in archaeological However, there is another aspect to Curie's Euro-
circles. While the latter had a long and distinguished pean interests. He had a great desire to visit
antiquarian career, reaching high office in the Scandinavia, and this he did in company with his
museums service as a professional, James is an out- brothers in 1888. According to Alexander, 'our father
standing example of an accomplished amateur always seemed to think that such family grouping was
archaeologist.4 An obituary described him as a man of desirable. Jim in his research for knowledge and in
great learning and humour, active in a number of interviews with Museum directors actually did not
spheres, but modest despite his achievements.5 In appreciate being furnished with a somewhat unintel-
retrospect it seems appropriate that this memorial „ ligent tail'. Despite this, it appears that he was alone
should have been written by Ian Richmond who was when he first went to Visby. Why did he first venture
later to become so closely identified with Romano- on the all-night ferry journey from Stockholm to the
British studies, and who was knighted for his island? Simply, in his own words:
achievements in the field. But it should be noted that
the definitive phase of Curie's antiquarian interests, I was attracted by the description of Wisby in my guide book
after the turn of the century, took place when he was and so one evening I took the little steamer from Stockholm
which plies to Gotland . In the morning we were going
already more than forty years of age. He was seventy slowly through a clammy fog groping our way when
when, in 1932, he published an article of some 120 suddenly as it were far above us there rose out of the mist the
pages summarizing his studies on the unassociated line of towers and crenellated walls which form the land-
finds of Roman origin from Scotland.6 Yet he had ward guard of Wisby which as yet lay hidden before us.9
been a member of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland since 1889, its Librarian from 1894, and a Only a few pages, written much later, survive of his
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London since lyrical description of the city with its historic monu-
1893. Richmond does not deal with this formative ments and pleasant environs, but Gotland was to
part of Curie's life, and it does not figure in any exercise a fascination over him for many years.
history of archaeology. But a little evidence does Situated in the centre of the Baltic, the island is a
limestone plateau which slopes gently from cliffs in
 T H E G O T L A N D I C C O L L E C T I O N OF JAMES CURLE OF M E L R O S E ( 1 8 6 2 - 1 9 4 4 )
the west to shallow beaches and islets in the east. Its
light soils generated wooded meadows for which the
island is famous, and heavier soils supported a
productive agriculture. It has few harbours, and
Visby has been settled since early Viking times
because it was one of the few safe havens for larger
craft. The island's early wealdi, based on the domina-
tion of the Baltic trade, was followed by a slow
decline caused by a long succession of wars with
neighbouring powers. Using Visby as a base, Curie
visited a number of the well-preserved stone
churches of which over ioo survive from the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries. They and the stone
houses of the peasant merchants remained largely
unaltered after the economic collapse, like a time-
capsule. Curie recalled happy times spent visiting 'pa
Landet' (the countryside), and it is clear from frag-
mentary notes for his lectures that he fully com-
municated both the charms and the colourful history
of the island to his audience.
Gotland has long been known as one of the richest
sources in Scandinavia of Iron Age archaeological
material.10 Its geographical position fostered a vigor-
ous and independent local culture, made wealthy
from trade, and open to a range of foreign influences.
The last three decades of the nineteenth century saw
a period of exponential economic and agricultural
development on the island, and a growing number of
antiquities were uncovered by chance during such
activities." Both national and local authorities took
an increasing interest in their recovery, and a
number of individuals, among whom F. Nordin and
G. Gustafson were the most prominent, undertook
systematic excavations to investigate the associated
scientific evidence.12 In addition to objects acquired
casually by landowners and educated enthusiasts on
the island, a few significant private collections were
built up, like that of Major S. Ulfsparre which was
acquired for the national collection in Stockholm in
1884.13 One of the most influential antiquaries on the
island was P. A. Save, who was instrumental in estab-
lishing the Foreningen Gotlands Fomvanneren
(Gotland Antiquarian Society) in 1875. As a direct
result, the Gotlands Fornsal (Gotland Museum) in
Visby rapidly grew out of what had been a school-
based collection, and in 1879 acquired its own build-
ing.14 The representatives of these institutions were
in competition for the best archaeological finds with
an increasing number of private collectors, both in
Scandinavia and abroad, and with the several middle-
men on the island who supplied them. This was a
time when an agricultural labourer earned only two
89
kronor a day, while an entrepreneurial dealer might
lay out 100 to 200 kronor on a 'good day' to purchase
antiquities, for example when a Viking-period
cemetery was being destroyed in extending a modern
churchyard. 15 The situation generated secrecy and
subterfuge, straining relations between Stockholm
and the locals, and leading to the illegal export of
antiquities. In such an area the question arises of
what selection strategy, if any, did Curie adopt? How
did he choose his objects from what was available? An
idea may be gained from his own words, recorded in
various surviving fragments.16 Firstly, why did he
concentrate on one small area:
An archaeological collection deserves its value not from the
number or the richness of the objects it contains b u t . . . as it
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becomes capable of illustrating the arts and progress . of
the population of a definite area. An ideal archaeological
collection should be one from a well defined area the objects
of which have been excavated and catalogued by skilled
hands
Secondly, why did he select Gotland:
It is difficult to estimate the debt of archaeology to the
smaller islands of Europe. They have preserved . a
dwelling place inviolate, in which . we may trace under
most favourable circumstances that slow evolution of
ornament and the growth and decay of patterns which must
have been characteristic of the work of all primitive
communities.
And thirdly what was his purpose
I desire to illustrate some phases of the art of Gotland in the
Iron Age [and although] . . . I cannot claim to fully
illustrate .. Gotlandic art during this long period their [sic]
are specimens which exemplify its main phases
The event which prompted the founding of his
collection occurred when he entered a goldsmith's
shop during his visit to Visby in 1888, and purchased a
'torque-shaped' gold finger-ring and two small bronze
penannular brooches, all of the Viking period. Two
flint spearheads were also acquired at that time.
Between 1888 and 1902 his documented visits to
Scandinavia total at least seven, during which he
visited Copenhagen, Lund, Stockholm, and especially
Gotland. By 1902 the collection contained at least 500
prehistoric objects (in the Swedish sense, to the end of
the Viking period in the twelfth century), and some 100
gold and silver coins. In addition, there were some
thirty post-medieval Scandinavian christening spoons
of silver and gilt-silver, and a runic stave calendar.17
Early prehistory is represented by some seventy Neo-
lithic and Bronze Age stone artefacts of well-known
90 DAFYDD KIDD
types, examples of which might have been found in
numerous contemporary collections, both public and
private.18 Some have a Gotlandic provenance, but
there are also more general locations in Sweden and
beyond. In the context of the collection these select
pieces represent the spread into Scandinavia after the
end of the Ice Age ofmigrants from the South, and their
skilled exploitation of locally available natural
resources. The early use of metal, a new technology
which involved the import first of finished products
then the raw material for local manufacture, is
represented by some twenty Bronze Age pieces.19
These are mainly axe-heads, representing some
principal types, and a sword purchased in Copen-
hagen. Later influence from the South is documented
by ten pieces of early Iron Age jewellery, mainly
brooches. This group forms a direct chronological and
typological introduction to what is the real nucleus of
the collection, material from the fully developed Iron
Age cultures of the first millennium AD. Within this
period, the earliest 500 years are represented by some
fifty objects and twenty coins belonging to the Roman
Iron Age and subsequent Migration period. The
weight of the collection lies firmly in the period 500-
1100, with some 100 Vendel-period and 200 Viking
objects, and more than eighty coins. A few later,
medieval pieces can be identified, of which some
certainly, and possibly all, were thought to be of the
Viking period when acquired. The archaeological
collection proper may therefore be said not to have
extended beyond the prehistoric period as defined in
Sweden, and the British Museum purchase was
limited to the Iron Age material and some outstanding
Bronze Age items.
Some of Curie's pieces are simply splendid expres-
sions of wealth, such as the total of eight heavily
decorated Viking silver armlets. These he acquired
individually, without detailed provenance. In con-
trast is a group of almost entirely undecorated tenth-
century silver, consisting of six plain, almost
duplicate armlets, two spiral arm-rings, a neck-ring
and an ingot. They are all said to have come from a
hoard in Dalhem parish, and are significant for their
association and find-spot. While the form and the
decoration of all this silver are of great aesthetic
appeal, none of the pieces displays great virtuosity in
its manufacture, being rather a working of bullion
into a form for ostentatious display and easy liquida-
tion in case of need. Rarer and more intrinsically
valuable is his thematic group of eight gold finger-
rings, dating from the sixth to twelfth centuries,
which includes three duplicate 'torque-shaped' forms
of the Viking period. The finger-ring had always been
a popular item with collectors, and the glitter of gold,
however simply worked, has its own special appeal. A
hollow, sheet-gold bead of the second century, orna-
mented with applied granulation and filigree, is dif-
ferent in its delicacy and technical skill. Other pieces
illustrate a powerful artistic expression which appeals
directly to the viewer, such as a brooch in the form of
a profiled eagle and a shield-grip terminal with mon-
ster's head, both of the seventh century. An eighth-
century brooch, rather typical of its form, is
outstandingly preserved, allowing a glimpse of the
delicately tooled patterns which have corroded away
on other examples. The back surface bears the clear
impress in the metal of a textile used in the casting
process, a feature noted by Curie as by several Swed-
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ish scholars before him. Other pieces are remarkable
for their absolute rarity, such as a late-Viking 'club-
head' of copper alloy and lead, with stylized animal
decoration.
Curie undertook no excavations himself and was
reliant upon others to supply him with information
about his acquisitions. 'The objects which form my
collection with one or two exceptions . . . coming to
me from various sources I have no particulars of the
circumstances of the finds.' He goes on to say that he
obtained parish names in a number of cases, informa-
tion which he regarded as the best available since he
did not have direct contact with the finders. The vast
majority of pieces in the collection come from
Gotland (with the exception of some items noted
below), and the whole island is represented by the
thirty-five parishes recorded among the provenances.
Later research among papers unavailable to Curie
does occasionally add more precise information
about some finds, such as one that became the centrie:
of a minor scandal. It concerned a group of copper-
alloy fittings, decorated with silver and glass, that
were originally mounted on a second-century
drinking-horn discovered at Myrungs in Linde
parish. Oscar Wennersten, the local representative of
the Stockholm authorities, heard of a pair of
drinking-horns being found while levelling a stone
burial mound. One of them had been sent to
'England', in contravention of Sweden's strict anti-
quities laws. A local dealer, Lysholm, denounced his
rival, Florin, as the guilty party. Threats, secret
letters and recriminations flew.20 Meanwhile Curie
sent a delightful watercolour of the find to Stockholm
where its pair had by then entered the national
collection.21 There is no suggestion in Curie's note-
book inventory that he knew the detailed history of
^
 T H E G O T L A N D I C C O L L E C T I O N OF JAMES C U R L E OF M E L R O S E ( 1 8 6 2 - 1 9 4 4 )
his mounts, and he does not appear to have informed
Stockholm that he had also acquired the associated
pottery and decorative studs from a cap. The jigsaw
of information has only recently been reassembled.
Unfortunately, no original records of any of his
purchases survive. As a shrewd lawyer Curie rarely
named his source, and he usually did so only when it
was a known dealer in Stockholm. Now we are reliant
on detective-work to reveal how the objects were
obtained and to uncover their documentation,
including, perhaps, a find-spot. One of Curie's most
outstanding pieces came from a Stockholm coin-
dealer, Daniel Holmberg, in 1891. It was a complete
glass beaker of the fifth century, so spectacular that
he had already been informed by his local contacts of
its discovery on the island. But he did not know of its
removal to Stockholm until he saw it there in the shop
and bought it. The find-spot was unknown to Curie
who could be certain only that it came from the
island. Several provenances are named in the
Swedish records, and although the national author-
ities were familiar with the find (Montelius having
referred to it in print in 1896), they either could not or
did not wish to seek out definitive information.
Another outstanding piece, a gilt-silver brooch of the
early sixth century, was purchased for 150 kronor
from the famous Stockholm dealer, H. Bukowski,
who had it from the huge collection of Christian
Hammer. It was said to have come from the neigh-
bouring island of Oland, but this claim was based on
anerror: recent research on the unpublished manu-
script catalogue of the original owner shows that it
was found on Gotland in the late 1860s.22 It is one of
the few documented instances of Curie acquiring a
piece from someone else's collection. He far pre-
ferred to obtain his material nearer its source, thereby
avoiding the heavy mark-up in price once an object
had entered the trade. On the island itself he men-
tions having been helped by a mayor of Visby, and by
a Captain Lindstrom whom he had met as a tourist
guide in 1888 and who became a long-time friend.
Other objects came from local inhabitants, such as a
group of outstanding brooches supplied by someone
referred to rather vaguely as 'a photographer who
lived near the harbour' Curie purchased a few pieces
on his journeys locally, and one of his Viking silver
armlets came from a ship's officer on the ferry. The
rather uncomfortable journey from Visby to Hemse
on the island's only railway line stuck in his memory
long after his travelling days were over. At least one
piece was, according to the inventory, acquired in
Hemse. The bulk of the collection, however, was
obtained by means of a middleman who appears to
have lived on the island. The acquisition of pieces for
his collection did not depend on Curie's visits. A
number of packages were sent to him, either by post
or with friends, such as one brought to him from
Stockholm in 1891 by Robert Munro, the Edinburgh
prehistorian. This was probably done after the
objects had first been submitted on approval, in the
form of photographs. He was indignant when a group
of walrus-ivory gaming pieces and dice, acquired in
1893 and exhibited that year before the Society of
Antiquaries in London, was said to have come more
likely from Norway: 'I myself got them on the island
and . . . throughout my dealings with the man from
whom they were purchased I have seen nothing to
make me suspect that he gathered antiquities for my
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benefit from other parts of the country.' Who this
person was we do not know. When Curie was asked in
1936 if it was the notorious Visby dealer, Florin, he
denied ever having met him, although admitting that
some pieces must have passed through his hands.
That Curie had not met one of the island's principal
dealers seems on the face of it to be most unlikely.
Perhaps the man was still alive and wanted to live in
peace No other likely name appears in the surviving
papers, and the matter remains a mystery.
Curie was no surreptitious or predatory collector.
Scholars and officials in the Statens Historiska
Museum in Stockholm had, over the years, become
his friends. Both Bernhard Salin and Oscar Monte-
lius helped him to obtain objects, and apparently
both visited his collection in Melrose. Why they
actively helped him in his collecting, rather than
applying the law, is not clear. Possibly they did not
have the necessary funds themselves to purchase
material for the national collection, and wished
important material to go into a scientific collection.
In 1896 Curie thanked Montelius for his help on a
visit to Stockholm, and acknowledged receipt of an
electrotype replica of Sweden's largest and finest
bracteate pendant of the sixth century, that from
Asum in Scania. He regularly sent them information
which included drawings of objects he had acquired.
He also sent an electrotype of an outstanding gilt-
bronze disc brooch of the seventh century, decorated
with interlaced bird heads. It had already been
recorded by the authorities when in Swedish private
possession, together with other associated pieces, but
the group ended up in Melrose. It is clear that Curie's
sharp eye, active intelligence system, and innate
determination, secured him many outstanding
pieces. Indeed, Salin remarked of one brooch in the
 DAFYDD KIDD
collection that it was the first he had seen of its type.
A seventh-century mount from the base of a sword
grip, for example, is decorated in a style that is not
immediately intelligible, although Curie must have
recognized the significance of the details of its
animal-interlace. It was important enough to be
mentioned in print by Montelius, and Salin asked for
a detailed drawing for inclusion in his great work on
animal art. In 1901 Curie sent the Royal Swedish
Society of Antiquaries a rare Viking brooch he had
acquired, with the request that they should give in
return a particular type, unrepresented in his collec-
tion. Not having such a duplicate available for
exchange, they sent instead eighty duplicate silver
coins of Arabic, German and Anglo-Saxon origin
from a Viking hoard, recently found at Mannegarda.
Salin was the intermediary, and it is no coincidence
that the material filled a major cultural gap in Curie's
collection, illustrating as it does the source of bullion
in the Viking period, and demonstrating Gotland's
far-flung connections. In the same year Curie
acquired half of a very rare, fifth-century gold
pendant on the island. In Stockholm he showed it
proudly to Montelius, whereupon the latter produced
the other half, a fragment purchased fifteen years
earlier for 30 kronor. Curie donated his part, and now
it is complete. But he did not show everything, nor
did he tell his Swedish friends every detail. When, in
1897, he acquired two rare, sheet-gold pendants for
75 kronor he wrote to a confidant that the transaction
should be kept quiet as he did not wish the authorities
to 'drop on the finder'.
The most numerous class of artefact in the collec-
tion is the brooch, of which there are some 150
examples, making up more than a third of the total
number of objects. This reflects their frequency in
Gotlandic grave-finds, and their great variety of form
and decoration over the period. According to one
leading Swedish scholar, 'In the whole dominion of
industrial art, certainly in metal work, there is
scarcely an object which gives us so favourable an
opportunity of studying the originality of a people as
the fibula'.23 From Curie's surviving notes we know
that the spirit behind the selection of his brooches
was both typological and didactic. Three choice
specimens which he purchased in 1892 and 1893, a n d
published in 1895, are similar in form but differ in
construction.24 Between them they demonstrate the
development from a fourth-century composite piece,
with numerous separate components of silver and
gilt-silver sheet, to a late fifth-century brooch which
retains the original form but is a single piece of cast
silver. The most complete sequence of development
represented in the collection spans more than 1,000
years. It starts with a bow brooch of the pre-Roman
Iron Age, and ends in the eleventh century AD. The
evolving structural relationship between the com-
ponent parts - bow, arc, and pin-spring with its
terminal knobs - and their changing shapes, are
crucial in this transformation. It is precisely this kind
of taxonomic detail that engaged Curie, and his note-
book contains a pencilled sketch showing an import-
ant stage in this development which was not
represented in his collection (Fig. 2). In the eighth
century the form became a shell, cast in one piece
with knobs now totally redundant, with the shape of a
stylized animal head (Fig. 3). During the Viking
period the surface, often divided into panels, was
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elaborately decorated. Through the medium of this
later development, the collection could illustrate the
300 years of stylistic change in Viking art. Many of
these motifs occurred at their most spectacular on
large-scale objects which could not realistically
feature in a private collection. Thus, for example, the
latest style of animal interlace, called in Sweden the
'Runestone' style after its usually monumental
character, is exquisitely represented in miniature on
the three decorative panels of an animal-head
brooch.
A number of other artefact types in the collection,
such as pins, sheet pendants, and disc-brooches,
further illustrated the sequence of art styles from the
fifth century onwards. Curie's statement after acquir-
ing one box-shaped brooch that 'now my series is
complete' clearly implies a guiding philosophy. It
also explains why significant non-Gotlandic pieces in
his collection were chosen. The purpose was not to
enlarge it into a Scandinavian collection, but rather to
complete a Gotlandic series where examples were so
rarely found on the island that realistically they could
be acquired only from the mainland. This is particu-
larly true of a 'cruciform' brooch from Ostergotland
in east-central Sweden, and a 'square-headed' type
from Vastergotland in the western part of central
Sweden. We know of this latter, heavily decorated
brooch only through an engraving in Salin's survey of
Germanic animal-style art, published in 1904.2' It
never came to the British Museum, neither did it
feature in any of the early lists of the collection made
from 1902 onwards; its present location is unknown.
The neighbouring island of Oland supplied several
brooches, and a rare example decorated with early
Germanic animal art from the Hammer collection,
referred to above, was mistakenly believed to have
 T H E GOTI..4SL)IC C O L L E C T I O \ O F J.\\IES C L R L E 01.'\ I E I . R O S F . ( l S 0 2 - 1 9 4 4 l 93

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FIG.2. A page from one ofJames Curle's notebooks with the sketch of a brooch. Reproduced by courtes) of the 'Trustees of the
British Museum; gift of Lady Cameron of Lochbroom in memory ofJames Curle.

come from there when Curle purchased it in 1896. A
classic form, rarely represented on the island, is the
oval 'tortoise' brooch. It was the most common
female ornament of the Viking period in Scandinavia,
yet it was of little significance in Gotlandic costume.
Curle has only a single example to represent its
evolution over several centuries, and this comes from
Lppland in eastern Sweden. The piece is very close
in form to a pair from Castletown, Caithness, which
must have been familiar to him from visits to the
Kational Museum of Antiquities in E d i n b ~ r g h . ~ '
It is clear from surviving notes and sketches that
Curle actively studied his material, both individually
and in relation to the overall composition of his
collection. A rough inventory of it which he prepared
shows such a good eye for the various types of pin, for
example, that types can be immediately recognized
without reference to the originals. In other notebooks
he sketched parallels to his own objects which he saw
on display in Stockholm, noting their respective
museum numbers and provenances. References to
articles in learned journals are also quoted, especially
when they illuminate the chronological or typological
position of items in his collection. In Sweden the last
third of the nineteenth century saw a range of high-
quality, uell-illustrated archaeological publications,
 .---.------
FIG.3. A series of brooches from the Curle collection showing their typological development. From R. A. Smith, .4 Guide to the
,4nglr,-Srur,n undForeign leutonic Antiqrtities in the Department ofBritish und Mediuerul Antiquities, British Museum (London, 1923).
such as Atztikzwisk TidskrtjifjrSzerige, hr 11-1-t Minds-
blud, and Szensku Fommi~~ne~~reni~zgens Tidskrift. They
contained two kinds of study, based upon the rapidly
increasing archaeological material. There were
theoretical papers on the systematic relationship of
objects, dealing with topics such as chronology,
typology, and art styles, and there were also scientific
accounts of excavations. Curle studied this approach
to archaeology that was developing in Sweden, led by
professionals such as Sven Soderberg, Bror Emil and
Hans Hildebrand, Oscar Montelius and Bernhard
Salin. H e studied their exhibition at the Statens
Historiska Museum, and absorbed and applied their
principles to building up his collection. He clearly
appreciated the importance of associated groups, but
was constrained by his distance from the original
source of the finds, and the honesty and education of
the middleman. This was a limitation also shared bv
curators of the public collections at the period. But
the growing number of scientific observations
allowed Curle to study closed groups and reliable
combinations. He wrote: 'Occasionallv articles have
been brought to me . . . together with the statement
that they have been found in one grave and these I
--.... INCHES
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have kept together. In nearly every case I have found a
similar association of objects among the grave finds
preserved in the collection of the National Museum
at Stockholm.' At first sight Curle's collection may
seem not to accord with his own criteria concerning
the need for scientific excavation and cataloguing. In
reality, the standard quality of much of the jewellery
produced on Gotland allowed him to relate the bulk
of his collection to pieces about which there was
detailed scientific knowledge current in Sweden at
the time.
A particular research interest of Curle's was the
diffusion of ideas from one area to another. He was
convinced that the indigenous population remained
on the island, at least from the beginning of the Iron
.4ge, and that they were influenced from the south.
He wrote of his collection for a lecture:
[It] presents a fairl! representative series of the ornaments
of an island people situated on the outskirts of the p e a t
continental ci~ilisationsand it shows how the g r m s of their
art were borrowed from the more advanced communities
and how gaduall?- forms of ornaments or ornamental
patterns were h i l t one upon another changing . . . in a
 T H E G O T L . I \ L ) I C C O L L E C T I O S 0 1 : J.L\lt;S C L - R L E O F \ l E L . K O S E
gradual course of evolution which must have lasted during
man! centuries.
This 'diffusionist' line of research greatly influenced
the numerical composition of the collection. For
example, he acquired fifteen examples in gold, silver
and bronze, of a type of bracteate - circular sheet
pendants, decorated in repousse. Published studies
showed that the inspiration for their decorative
motifs lay in late-Roman gold medallions, bearing the
image of the emperor and sometimes a horse and
rider (Fig. 4). On Gotland the bracteates developed
locally from the fifth to the eighth centuries, longer
than in the rest of Scandinavia where they ceased in
(1862-1944) 95
the sixth century. Their iconographic progression
and change over the centuries fascinated him, and his
enthusiasm is measured by the fact that eight of his
specimens were of gold, while in 1887 the national
holding in the Statens Historiska 3luseum num-
bered only some I~o." He had been obliged to
acquire an example of the early stage in the e p o -
logical development, not from Gotland but from
Scania in southern Sweden, because of its rarie on
the island. It was represented by two gold pieces
struck from the same die, which had originally been
associated with a third example which entered the
Stockholm 3Iuseum at about the same time. He was
tempted to publish his views on this material,

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FM,.4. .I page from one ofJames Curle's notebooks with some notes on gold hracreares. Reproduced h! courte4
the British lluseum; gift of Lad!- Cameron of I.ochbroom in m e m o n ofJames Curlc.
96 DAFYDD KIDD
especially in relation to a curious little gold bracteate
in his collection, which a recently discovered photo-
graph suggests may have come from the parish of
Roma; he was too diffident in the face of Swedish
scholarship in the field to go ahead, however,
although he was to regret this omission in later life. In
1895 he did publish a gilt-silver brooch in his collec-
tion, using its scrollwork decoration to illustrate the
diffusion in barbarian contexts of the classical
acanthus motif.28 His working sketches for this study,
only a few of which were published, show the breadth
of his comparative research into other collections and
the continental literature.
Interest in the documentation of southern contacts
also explains the place in his collection of the coins.
They are certainly not comprehensive in numismatic
terms, although a range of specimens could easily
have been acquired on the island, if that had been his
intention. Twelve silver denarii of the first to third
centuries, and twelve gold solidi of the fourth to early
seventh centuries, serve to illustrate the contacts of
Gotland with the imperial power of Rome and then
Byzantium. Numerically their balance is most un-
representatative since by 1888 some 4,000 Roman
silver coins were known from the island, while the
number of gold pieces discovered there totalled only
some 200.29 For the reasons indicated above, it cannot
be assumed that each individual coin is from Got-
land, since some could be from elsewhere in
Sweden.30 This is particularly troublesome in rela-
tion to the cultural interpretation of two gold solidi,
one of the emperor Phocas (602-10), and the other of
Heraclius struck c. 638/9, whose dates place them
among the latest Byzantine gold pieces known from
the area.31 Some, like a fourth-century solidus of
Constantine, had been pierced for use as pendants,
while others were destined for the crucible, to supply
the local jewellers with raw material. After being
melted down the metal was turned into wire spirals
and rings, examples of which are also represented in
the collection. Further evidence of Gotland's foreign
contacts can be seen in the import of exotic raw
materials for richly-coloured, prestige jewellery.
These included garnet, ultimately from Persia or Asia
Minor, and cuttle-shell, perhaps from the Mediter-
ranean, which were employed as inlays on a series of
'disc-on-bow' brooches. This elaborate type copied
the 'polychrome' style of jewellery, popular through-
out the Germanic world in the fifth to seventh
centuries, and is represented in the collection by ten
examples. Some of them are so damaged as to reveal
their complex construction, for, like other contem-
poraries, Curie was greatly interested in studying the
technical details of how such jewellery was made.
This interest in the cultural influence exerted by
the Roman provinces over tribes beyond the frontier
not only affected Curie's collecting policy, but also
had wider implications for his future career. His
method of study was to start with the particular, in
this case his own objects and comparable pieces
studied by him, and accumulate detailed observa-
tions from which he could make more generalized
statements. This inductive approach may be said to
characterize the study of past cultures, based on
collections of objects. In 1892 he published a brief
study of the provincial Roman debris from the native
site at Torwoodlee, which is only six miles from
Newstead.32 Using his wide knowledge of parallels he
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sketched the origins of these imports from the
Empire, especially the glass and pottery. He had a
long-established interest in Roman glass vessels, and
surviving notes and sketches show that he made com-
parative studies in foreign museums and continental
publications. He gave at least one lecture in Edin-
burgh on the provincial Roman glass vessels found
beyond the imperial frontiers in Scandinavia. Per-
haps it is not too fanciful to suggest that these early
interests led directly to the style of interpretation
seen in Curie's publication of the site of Newstead.
Among those whose advice is acknowledged in that
publication is Reginald Smith of the British
Museum. Curie's contacts with that institution went
back at least two decades, and it is from correspond-
ence with Charles Hercules Read (subsequently Sir
Charles, and Keeper of the Department of British
and Mediaeval Antiquities) that such incidental
information about Curie's Gotlandic activity
emerges. Unfortunately Read's letters to him do not
survive for us to see what advice such a professional
might have given on how to build up the collection.
But Curie once wrote plaintively about the time it
took to receive a reply to a note: 'has it gone out of
fashion for them to write letters?', he once enquired.
In 1891 Curie gave two typically Gotlandic brooches
to the British Museum, and in the following year a
group of eight, as a small gesture to help fill a major
gap in the public collections. He always intended that
all his material should come to the British Museum,
whose staff had already prepared lists of the collec-
tion, labelled 'for acquisition some day'. Perhaps they
date back to 1902, when a technician from the
Museum spent his holiday at Priorswood, Curie's
house in Melrose, re-ordering and pinning the
material, which was apparently in some disorder, on
 THE G0TLAND1C COLLECTION OF JAMES C U R L E
to wooden blocks. Curie does not appear to have
visited Sweden after 1901, nor to have acquired any-
thing after 1902. This marks a profound change in his
attitude to the collection, and in his life generally.
Following his marriage in 1902, with a honeymoon
spent in Italy, he took on the burden of family com-
mitments. His scientific interests turned more to
matters Roman and local, and from 1905 to 1911 he
was fully occupied with the Newstead project. The
Great War affected him deeply, to the extent that he
declined an invitation to write an account of his
collection for the Society of Antiquaries of London:
he could not see the point. It was, however, many
years after his active involvement with the collection,
and then with the greatest reluctance, that he parted
with it. It appears from the correspondence that the
imminent retirement of Read played a part in decid-
ing the issue in his mind. In 1920 Curie agreed to offer
the Iron Age material to the British Museum for
roughly what it had cost him, a sum he reckoned at
£1,200. A sovereign of 1890 is today worth some £80,
and by this reckoning the original expenditure might
be given a modern equivalent of some £100,00033 But
the comparison is rather empty because many of
Curie's pieces simply could not now be purchased.
Always short of money, the Trustees obtained a
generous grant from the National Art-Collections
Fund to purchase the collection a year later, and a
great cultural asset was secured for the nation.
The acquisition of such major collections was
always dependent upon the financial resources avail-
able to the Trustees at the time. A broad policy of
what European material the national collection
should acquire had, however, long been established
by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks. The most
influential British antiquary of his generation, Franks
served the British Musuem from 1851 until his death
in 1896, first as an official then as a Trustee. In con-
trast to the extensive range of fine arts represented
among his personal collection, he sought out
important archaeological collections for his depart-
ment. As early as 1851 he had commented on the
scientific value to the Museum of acquiring material
from defined areas, with grave-groups and proven-
ances, well-documented and, if possible, with a cata-
logue attached. Such ideas led to the purchase of the
late Iron Age collection ofjohann Bahr from Latvia in
1852, the archaeological part of Gustav Klemm's
collection from Dresden in 1868, and that ofJ.J. A.
Worsaae from Denmark in 1869. This well-developed
institutional background, and the geographical range
of these major acquisitions, explains the strong desire
OF M E L R O S E (1862-1944) 97
of Read, Franks's former assistant and successor as
Keeper of the Department, to obtain this major
Gotlandic collection for the British Museum.
An intriguing question is to what extent the collec-
tion was originally accumulated as a purely personal
foible, and how far its creation was influenced by
Curie's intellectual environment. A significant num-
ber of private ethnographical collections was made by
Scots travelling and living abroad, in the service of
the empire or as missionaries, and they subsequently
enriched local museums on their return home. There
was a well-established interest in Scandinavia among
the Scots, not only because of Viking and medieval
connections, and the Baltic wars when Scots served
as mercenaries, but because of the flourishing
commerce between the two areas during the nine-
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teenth century. The Society of Antiquaries of Scot-
land numbered several Nordic royalty among the
Honorary Fellows as well as professional archaeo-
logists from the area. The Danes, Christian Thomsen
and J.J. A. Worsaae were elected in 1851 and 1874,
respectively; George Stephens of runic fame, pro-
fessor of English in Copenhagen in 1871; from
Christiania, Olaf Rygh in 1881; from Stockholm, Bror
Emil Hildebrand in 1875, and Hans Hildebrand in
1885, while Oscar Montelius and Sophus Muller
were elected in 1897, probably with Curie's help
There is no equivalent representation of scholars
from mainland Europe, and the balance clearly
reflects an intellectual orientation very different from
that of the London Society. Joseph Anderson, whom
Curie had known as a boy, was the Edinburgh
Society's Assistant Secretary and Curator of the
National Museum of Antiquities. He was interested
in the saga literature, and his Rhind lectures of 1879-
81, on Scotland in both pagan and early-Christian
times, fully considered the influence of Scandinavia.34
The Museum acquired Scandinavian prehistoric
material for its comparative collection, but no later
Iron Age pieces, thereby leaving a gap in its coverage.
Knowledge of such material in Britain was not
limited to a small number of scholars and enthusiasts,
even at this date. For several decades there had
appeared a number of popular books in English,
many of them translations, about Scandinavian
archaeology. It was in 1888, the year of Curie's first
visit to Sweden, that Oscar Montelius's The Civilisa-
tion ofSweden in Heathen Times was printed in London.
Its integrated treatment of artefacts alongside monu-
ments and literature provided a general survey of the
cultural history of the period. Earlier, in 1882, the
South Kensington Museum had mounted a loan
98 DAFYDD KIDD
exhibition of Scandinavian archeological material,
and sponsored two popular handbooks in English,
one by J. J. A. Worsaae and the other by Hans Hilde-
brand.35 They treated the pagan period, to the end of
the Viking Age, in Denmark and Sweden respect-
ively. Hildebrand based his work specifically and in
detail upon objects, devoting little space to other
sources of culture-history. Of 150 pages, he devoted
10% to all the prehistoric material before the Roman
period, 25% to the 750 years of the Roman and
Germanic Iron Ages, and 65% to the 300 years of the
Viking period, almost half of which is devoted to
Gotland. This study, which appeared in 1883, is
highly significant in encapsulating both the spirit and
the emphasis of Curie's collection. Today we take for
granted the modern requirement for objectivity in
archaeology, and forget that previous generations saw
the remains of the past in quite a different light. A
series of Hildebrand's most telling phrases are here
linked, not necessarily in sequence, to give a glimpse
of his approach. The objects provide:
. . very valuable lessons concerning the development of
Teutonic art and of human civilisation in general . deter-
mined by laws . As to the ultimate fate of this development
. . . [it is] . . . final failure irresistably become debased
and therefore doomed . . . The end of the pagan Iron age of
Gotland is by no means of a fascinating character . . . Doom
is regularly preceded by forebodings and misgivings which
in industrial art appear in the shape of repulsive decay
Christianity is dawning . . . the new era commenced in
Scandinavia at a good time, exactly when it was needed
The nature and scope of Curie's highly specialized
collection was most unusual for a private individual
at that time. It was systematically collected, with
specific goals, and a well-formulated philosophy
behind it. The material was, generally speaking, non-
classical in origin, but illustrative of a small area in
the 'barbarian North'. It consisted of small-scale
jewellery of an archaeological, rather than an art-
historical, character. In insular terms it was not
primarily a prehistoric collection, but concentrated
on a then rather unfashionable, proto-historic period.
It did not relate directly to the history of the British
Isles, and shared points of contact only in respect of
some fifth-century Migration-period and Viking
pieces. As such, the material is outstanding, but is not
wholly alone among British archaeological collec-
tions. Several of the 'salmon barons', gentlemen from
southern England who visited Norway in search of
sport, took an interest in the ancient monuments they
observed there, and to their traditional pursuits of
huntin', shootin', and fishin', was sometimes added
that of diggin'. Local tradition records that one of
them excavated burial mounds on an island near
Tromso, and it may be a result of such activity that, in
1900, the British Museum purchased what were said
to be the contents of an eighth-century woman's
grave from the area.36 Such a collector during the
1880s was Alfred Heneage Cocks. Before stalking elk
he would sometimes excavate a barrow, or hire
someone to do it for him. He might make notes and a
plan if the find was particularly interesting, like that
of a tenth-century Viking male burial in a boat. Dug
carefully rather than scientifically in 1886, and
recorded likewise, it is one of the earliest measured
records of such a grave.37 His collection of some 100
pieces from the fifth to twelfth centuries is remark-
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able for its poverty of material wealth. It derived from
excavations, and from chance finds on the high fell,
and reflects the culture of poor agricultural com-
munities in an isolated part of central Norway. What
was available to him was made of local raw materials
such as iron or whalebone, with a few imported glass
beads and bronze brooches. Its contrast with the
material wealth and artistic content of the Curie
collection is absolute. Unlike most such collections,
it does have a detailed summary catalogue, printed
privately in 1891 to accompany its public exhibition at
the Royal Anthropological Institute in London. This
is the source for many of the provenances which were
supplemented by more detailed, contemporary
manuscript labels on the objects. As a direct result of
these factors Cocks was able to sell his specialist
collection to the British Museum in 1891.
The other contemporary collection in Britain
which included a significant component of Scandin-
avian Iron Age material was completely different in
character. This was the large comparative collection
made by Sir John Evans, and given by his son Arthur
(later Sir Arthur) to the Ashmolean Museum late in
1908 (and registered in 1909). Evans was a great
traveller, and had good connections with Scandin-
avia. As early as 1867 he had given the British
Museum a small group of Roman Iron Age spears
from one of the great Danish bog-finds, and in 1870 a
Viking-period oval brooch from Gotland, a type
rarely found on the island.38 His own collection con-
tained a number of Scandinavian pieces, but the
Gotlandic material formed by far the largest series. It
numbers some eighty pieces, mainly brooches repre-
senting the principal late Iron Age types,39 of which
about a quarter had a parish provenance. Such
material was doubly attractive for a general collection
 T H E G O T L A N D I C C O L L E C T I O N OF JAMES C U R L E OF M E L R O S E (1862-1944) 99
since it had been made topical by the publications of Sweden, although the knowledge he gained of con-
Swedish scholars. As yet, there is no information tinental museums at this period was formative in his
available about how he acquired it, although some later work. In 1908 he presented the British Museum
pieces were recorded as having been discovered with a Merovingian openwork buckleplate and a
between 1886 and 1896, exactly when Curie was brooch, but these were probably acquired during
actively collecting.40 The mass of papers associated travels in connection with his study of the Newstead
with the collection apparently includes no letter from finds.44
James Curie.41 However, Evans was a member of the The work of a number of scholars has resulted in a
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland from 1874, and an broad framework for studying the intellectual, insti-
Honorary Member since 1896, and it is inconceivable tutional and topographical aspects of the history of
that the two could have been in ignorance of each archaeology. But their studies generally do not
other's activities. adequately consider the role during the nineteenth
As a member of the educated and well-off, profes- century of non-excavating, amateur collectors of
sional middle class, Curie was one of a growing European archaeological material. Thus, the effect of
number of those able to travel and to collect, a de- a growing market on the redistribution of chance
velopment seen in other parts of Europe at the same finds, and its stimulus to a deliberate search for sale-

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time. It was not a new phenomenon: such involve- able items, sometimes involving illicit digging, has
ment with continental archaeology, quite distinct been ignored. It is therefore difficult to place Curie's
from the ethos of the 'Grand Tour', had been cham- activity within an overall European structure While
pioned in the previous generation by Charles Roach he had established local contacts whom he regularly
Smith. Originally an apothecary, and refused entry to visited, many other collectors remained at home,
the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1836 because using instead a proliferating number of middlemen
of his connections with 'trade', he is primarily known who were dealers or who themselves travelled abroad
for his extensive collection of London antiquities.42 to acquire material. The broadening social back-
Consisting largely of Roman provincial and medieval ground of collectors was facilitated by the periodic
material, it was purchased by the British Museum in redistribution of material through a number of
1856, with many comparative European specimens London auction houses, among whom Messrs
45
included. Roach Smith travelled widely in France Sotheby's and Christie's were the most prominent.
and western Germany, and his influential series of Study of the wider, social and intellectual implica-
publications, entitled Collectanea Antiqua (1848-80), tions of this phenomenon, and detailed research into
documented parallels in provincial-Roman and the class-structure and complex interrelationships
early-medieval pottery, glass, and metalwork between among collectors and dealers in archaeological
46
these areas and lowland Britain. He was also instru- material, is only now beginning. Despite a chronic
mental in publicizing the excavations and researches lack of documentation, collections such as that of
there among a British readership.43 In subsequent James Curie do furnish case-studies which contribute
47
years other archaeologists followed his example, to the understanding of this general history.
although it must be remarked that they, with less flair
for publicity, did so with much less effect. James
Curie's Scandinavian travels, while in a different Address for correspondence
direction, may be seen in this tradition. In a modest
Dafydd Kidd, Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities,
way he became an intermediary to a wider audience, British Museum, London WCiB 3DG.
including the Society of Antiquaries in both Edin-
burgh and London, by exhibiting parts of his collec-
tion and by lecturing. Curie visited mainland Europe Notes and references
to make comparative studies, and some of his 1 D Kidd, 'The history of the early-medieval European
sketches of glass vessels survive. Such trips are collections in The British Museum'', Journal of lite History of
obscure through lack of documentation, and he does Collections 1 no 1 (1989), pp 103-7
not appear to have acquired antiquities from the area. 2. For details of these discoveries and their implications for
Swedish archaeology, see D Kidd and L Thunmark-
His purchases of books while librarian of the Scottish Nylen, ' J a m e s Curie of Melrose and his collection of
Society of Antiquaries do, however, show his active Gotlandic antiquities', Fornvannen 85 (1990), pp 153-73
interest in continental archaeology. Curie did not The most important is a fifteen-page reply to a letter
attempt to establish a network of contacts as in enquiring as to how he made the collection- J Curie to
R Steffen, 8 November 1936, in Starback-Steffenska
100 DAFYDD KIDD
Arkivet, Landsarkivet, Visby It was rediscovered by Dr
Lena Thunmark-Nylen who had been asked to search for
any response to the fifty-year old question which had
survived, tucked into a note-book, in Edinburgh
3. J Curie, A Roman Frontier Post and its People (Edinburgh,
1911) The rediscovery of Curie's excavanon notebooks is
briefly described in D. Kidd and G. Ritchie, 'The Curie
collection of Gotlandic antiquities', National Art-Collections
Fund Magazine (Summer, 1988), p. 7.
4. A Graham, 'A memorial of Alexander Ormiston Curie',
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 88 (1954-6),
pp. 234-6
5. I A Richmond, 'Memorial- James Curie', Proceedings of the
Society ofAntiquaries of Scotland 78 (1944), pp. 144-9
6 J. Curie, 'An inventory of objects of Roman and provincial
Roman origin found on sites in Scotland not definitely
associated with Roman constructions', Proceedings of the
Society ofAntiquaries of Scotland 66 (1932), pp 277-397
7 I should like to thank members of the Curie family for much
kind help and hospitality during these researches, especi-
ally Lady Cameron of Lochbroom, Mrs Barbara Linehan
and Mrs Christian Pitman
8. From the private Journal of A. O. Curie, entry dated
22 March 1944. I owe this reference to the late Lt -Col
Alexander Curie and the late Mrs Cecil Curie, FSA The
papers were subsequently donated to the library of the
Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments
of Scotland in Edinburgh, where I am indebted to Dr
Graham Ritchie for his kind assistance.
9. Lecture notes in James Curie's hand, fragmentary and
undated, in private possession.
10 Collected in a number of corpuses. O. Almgren, DteAltere
Eisenzeit Gotlands 1-11 (Stockholm, 1914 and 1923), B Ner-
man, Die Volkerwanderungszeit Gotlands (Stockholm, 1935),
B. Nerman, Die Vendelzeit Gotlands 1-11 (Stockholm, 1975 and
1969 respectively), M. Stenberger, Die Schatzfunde Gotlands
der Wikingerzeit 1-11 (Stockholm, 1958 and 1947 respectively)
11. A. Salomonsson, 'Gotland for 100 ar sen', Gotlandskt Arkiv
47(>975).PP 39-68
12 M. Lindquist, Arkeologiska Faltundersokmngar pa Gotland
mellan Aren 1826 och /9S5 (RAGU Rapport 1) (Stockholm,
1988).
13 B. Nerman, Den Gotlandska Fomforskmngens Htstona (KVHAA
Handlingar 592) (Stockholm, 1945)
14. L. Bohman, 'Per Arvid Saves vag till Gotlands Fornsal',
Gotlandskt Arkiv 47 (1975), pp 7—38
15 Antikvansk-Topografiska Arkivet, Stockholm O Wenner-
sten to 0 Montehus, 16 December 1896, quoted in Kidd
and Nylen, op cit (note 2), p. 169.
16 As note 9.
17 Recorded by H. Morland Simpson, 'On two rune prime
staves from Sweden and three wooden almanacs from
Norway', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 26
(1891-2), pp. 358-73, especially pp 359-60, fig 1. The
spoons are unpublished, in private possession
18. In private possession I am indebted to Mrs Barbara
Linehan for access to this material
19 I am indebted to Dr Alison Sheridan and Trevor Cowie of
the National Museum of Scotland for discussing their
identifications of the prehistoric material
20 Antikvansk-Topografiska Arkivet, Stockholm
21 Antikvansk-Topografiska Arkivet, Stockholm Reproduced
in Kidd and Thunmark-Nylen, op. cit (note 2), fig. 18
22 The rediscovery of this important document was made by
Dr Jan Peder Lamm as a result of enquiries from the British
Museum See J. P Lamm, 'Das Antiken-Kabinet der
Sammlung Christian Hammer und lhr wiedergefundener
Haupt-katalog', Archaologisches Korrespondenzblatt 14 (1984),
PP 434-41-
23. H Hildebrand, The Industrial Arts oj Scandinavia in the Pagan
Time (London, 1883), p 89
24. J. Curie, 'Notes upon three Early Iron Age brooches from
the Island ofGodand', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland 29 (1895), pp. 292-301
25 B Sahn, Die Altgermamsche Thierornamentik (Stockholm,
1904), pp 58, 61, figs 130, 366 no 130.
26 H. Shetelig (ed.), Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and
Ireland, part 11: Scotland (Oslo, 1940), p 24a,fig.7
27 0 . Montehus, The National Historical Museum Stockholm. A
Guide to The Collections (Stockholm, 1887), p 52, footnote
28 Curie, op cit. (note 24), pp 298-301.
29. O Montehus, The Civilisation of Sweden tn Heathen Times
Downloaded from jhc.oxfordjournals.org by guest on January 12, 2011
(London, 1888), p 99, footnote and p 125, footnote, respect-
ively
30. This material was not mentioned in the literature before
1990, see Kidd and Thunmark-Nylen, op cit. (note 2),
p 155, and consequently was not included in the standard
work byj. M Fagerhe, Late Roman and Byzantine Solidi Found
in Sweden and Denmark (Numismatic Notes and Mono-
graphs 137, American Numismatic Society) (New York,
1967)
31. I owe this note to my colleague Dr Andrew Burnett, Keeper
of the Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum,
where the coins from the Curie collection are now kept.
32 J Curie, 'Notes on two brooches recently discovered at
Bow, Midlothian, and Torwoodlee, Selkirkshire', Proceed-
ings of the Society ofAntiquaries of Scotland 26 (1891-2), pp 68-
84
33 This is one way of addressing a complex problem The
present price of gold is less than half what it was at its peak
in the 1980s, even before allowing for inflation It has
implications for calculating changes in the real price of
antiquities, and for assessing the amount of disposable
income expended by different collectors relative to modern
standards. The Retail Price Index conversion is nearer
£55,000 today, but this seems far too low. I am grateful to my
colleague Mrs Virginia Hewitt for a valuable discussion of
the issues.
34 J. Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian Times (Edinburgh,
1881), and idem, Scotland in Pagan Times The Iron Age (Edin-
burgh, 1883) The volumes are the Rhind Lectures in
Archaeology for 1879 and 1881, respectively.
35 J J A. Worsaae, The Industrial Arts of Denmark (London,
1882), Hildebrand, op. cit (note 23)
36 British Museum, MLA 1900, 5-18, 1 to 13 See T. Sjovold,
The Iron Age Settlement of Arctic Norway 11 (Oslo, 1974),
pp 167-8, 200-1, fig 5, pi 29; T Sobstad, '1200 ar gammel
kvinnegrav fra Tromso omradet', Ottar 89 (1976), pp. 175-8.
37 Unpublished MS notes in the Department of Medieval and
Later Antiquities, British Museum.
38 British Museum, MLA 1867, 7-11, 1 to 6, and 1870, 8-18,1,
respectively
39 E. T Leeds, 'Two types of brooch from the Island of
Gotland, Sweden', ArchaeologicalJournal 67 (1910), pp 235-
58
40 I am grateful to Lisbeth Mason and Arthur MacGregor for
 THE GOTLANDIC COLLECTION OF J A M E S C U R L E OF M E L R O S E
giving me access to their hitherto unpublished catalogue of
this part of the Evans collection.
41 I am indebted to Mrs Ann Brown for information on this
point
42. For a full account see D. Kidd, 'Charles Roach Smith and
his Museum of London Antiquities', British Museum Year-
book 2 (1977), pp. 105-36
43. For a case-study see D Kidd, 'Charles Roach Smith and
the Abbe Cochet', Centenaire de I'Abbe Cochet Acles du
Colloque International d'Arche'ologie, Rouen j—^jmllet igj$
(Rouen, 1978), fascicule I, pp 63-77.
44. British Museum, MLA 1908,6-17, 3 and 4.
45 For examples of how the collection of General Pitt Rivers
was enriched in this manner with continental early-
medieval material, see D Kidd, 'Gilt-silver and garnet-
mlaid sheath fittings from Hungary', Archaologisches
Korrespondenzblatt 20 (1990), pp 125-7, a n t ' The buckle
from the Koln Severinstor grave of c 1845', Archaologisches
Korrespondenzblatt 20 (1990), pp 209-14
46 See, for example, a group of diree related studies which
(1862-1944) IOI
supplement the titles in notes 42 and 43 M Gibson and
S M Wright (eds ), Joseph Mayer of Liverpool (1803—1886)
(London, 1988), M. Rhodes, 'Faussett rediscovered-
Charles Roach Smith, Joseph Mayer, and the publication of
Inventorium Sepulchrale', in E Southworth (ed.), Anglo-
Saxon Cemeteries A reappraisal (Liverpool, 1990), pp 25-64,
M. Rhodes, 'Some Aspects of the Contribution to British
Archaeology of Charles Roach Smith (1806-1890)', un-
published Ph.D thesis, London University, 1992. There
are, of course, relevant papers in this journal
47 1 am grateful to Dr Lena Thumark-Nylen and Dr Jan Peder
Lamm, both of Stockholm, for great help and encourage-
ment over a number of years, to Torsten Gislestam of Visby
for valuable references, and to Barry Ager of M&LA for his
comments. The paper is a modified version of a lecture
given to the Society of Antiquaries of Scodand in Edin-
burgh and Aberdeen, in September 1992 I learned much
from the comments and suggestions made during the lively
discussion which followed
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