Collection: Salisbury Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Archaeology Collection

  Stonehenge is the most famous, and one of the most enigmatic, archaeological sites in Britain. The Stonehenge collection is displayed, with artefacts from excavations at the site including a stone wrist guard and arrowheads found with a burial in the ditch; and a fine stone macehead. There is also an extensive collection of engravings and paintings of the site and its landscape. The Pitt Rivers Collection comprises material amassed and excavated by Lt Gen Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827-1900), the father of modern archaeology, in the late 19th century. It includes finds from Pitt Rivers major excavations, chiefly on prehistoric and Roman date, on his estate in Cranborne Chase; archaeological material he acquired from elsewhere; a small amounts of ethnographic and social history material. The medieval collections from Salisbury and its locality are particularly important. Moved from the site at Old Sarum, where the first Cathedral was built in the 11th century, the new city of Salisbury was planned and laid out in the early 13th century. There are finds from the city itself and also from surrounding sites including Ivychurch Priory, the Royal Palace at Clarendon, the deserted medieval village at Gomeldon and the pottery kilns at Laverstock. The Drainage Collection, retrieved from the city’s drains, is one of the finest early collections of keys, buckles, cutlery, spurs, horse trappings and pilgrim badges. The Neolithic and Bronze Age collections include finds from the Neolithic henge monument at Durrington Walls, Easton Down flint mines, and many of the barrow cemeteries of Neolithic and Bronze Age date in the locality. There is a particuarly fine early Bronze Age burial from Shrewton, complete with its beaker and bronze dagger. This is the core strength of this museum and the collection for which it is designated. The collection is strong in all periods from the palaeolithic to the post-medieval period, though its prehistory and medieval collections are particularly fine. In addition to material mentioned under Strengths, the collection has many artefacts from the excavations of Roman pottery kilns by Heywood Sumner and others in the New Forest; the mosaic from Downton Roman villa; finds from the many Saxon cemeteries which have been found in the valleys around Salisbury; and the Wilton hanging bowl.

  Subjects

  Archaeology (cemeteries); Archaeology (industrial); Archaeology; World Cultures; Archaeology (settlement)

  Fine Art Collection

  The collection is particularly strong on images of Salisbury Cathedral, City and Stonehenge. There are five watercolours by J M W Turner and one sketch by Constable. Other works are topographical views, pictures of local personalities and works by local artists.

  Subjects

  Fine Art

  Numismatics Collection

  There is a collection of English coins of all periods. The Pitt Rivers Collection includes the Durden Collection of Iron Age coins from Hod Hill and the Warne Collection. There are 17th and 19th century tokens and jettons.

  Subjects

  Numismatics

  Biology Collection

  There is a collection of mounted birds (the Marsh collection); a few mammals; part of the Sir Christopher Andrewes collection of flies, wasps, ants and bees; some butterflies and moths; and a 19th century herbarium, the Hussey collection, of specimens from the UK and Switzerland. The most important items are a mounted group of Great Bustards, the largest British land bird, which became extinct in England in the 19th century.

  Subjects

  Biology

  Decorative and applied Art Collection

  The Brixie Jarvis Wedgwood collection is an excellent representation of both the useful and ornamental wares made by Wedgwood in the 18th and 19th centuries. It includes some notable rarities such as the ‘Frog’ plate, from a dinner service made by Wedgwood in 1773-74 for Catherine the Great of Russia. It bears a hand-painted view of Mount Edgcumbe, Devon. There is a representative collection of 17th to 20th century wares based upon the Wilkes and Blackmore bequests; and a collection of approximately 600 pieces of Wedgwood from the Jarvis collection. English glass is represented mainly by drinking vessels. Rare and unusual items include a complete set of the Five Senses and a dated inkwell of 1750 from the Bow factory; an 18th century saltglaze stoneware jug in the form of a bear; a Lambeth earthenware fuddling cup; and a 19th century Staffordshire figure of Latimer and Ridley burned at the stake. The collection contains a few pieces of important local furniture including two mayoral chairs of the 17th century. There is a small collection of Salisbury-made silver.

  Subjects

  Ceramics; Decorative and Applied Arts

  Costume and Textile Collection

  The collection is strongest in 18th and 19th century local costume, lace and embroidery, with women’s dresses predominating. Among important material is a lady’s riding habit of c.1795; a volunteer uniform of Captain Swayne, 1812; a large collection of local smocks; and some fine silk robes from the collection of the illustrator B H Brock. Amongst the embroideries are two exceptional pieces of 17th century stumpwork. There are also dolls, one reputedly dressed by Marie Antoinette. Wiltshire had a lace making trade and fine lace, prickings, bobbins and worked samples of patterns of the Downton lace industry feature.

  Subjects

  Costume and Textile

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds about 25 ancient Egyptian objects. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: flints; other. The flints are claimed to have been the first flint flakes and cores to have been discovered in situ in the stratified gravels of the Nile Valley. They were discovered by Pitt Rivers. Associated with the objects are a whole range of papers, including correspondence and reports.

  Subjects

  Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeology; Egyptology

  Medals Collection

  There are military and commemorative medals.

  Subjects

  Medals

  Music Collection

  There are two instruments, a viola and a cello, made by Benjamin Banks (1727-1795), who was born and lived in Salisbury.

  Subjects

  Music

  Social History Collection

  There is local history material from the Salisbury from post-medieval times to the present day, including local trade, guild and civic items. The Salisbury Giant and Hob Nob, pageant figures of the Guild of Merchant Taylors, are noteworthy. A range of domestic items includes material mainly of 19th century date.

  Subjects

  Social History

  Arms and Armour Collection

  There is a small collection of militaria, including some costume; and some locally made guns.

  Subjects

  Arms and Armour

  Ethnography Collection

  The Pitt Rivers collection contains a small amount of ethnographic material.

  Subjects

  Ethnography

  Geology Collection

  There is a good collection of chalk fossils from South Wiltshire.

  Subjects

  Geology

  Transport Collection

  The most notable item is the Downton fire engine, made by Nuttall and Company of London in 1768.

  Subjects

  Transport

  Medicine Collection

  There is a reconstruction of a pre-National Health Service local doctor’s surgery. Dr Philip Neighbour practiced in Amesbury for many years in the middle of the 20th century.

  Subjects

  Medicine

  Photographic Collection

  The photographic collection features local views of the Salisbury and its locality, and pictures of local personalities and trades.

  Subjects

  Photography

  Archives Collection

  The archive collection includes the important Pitt Rivers papers, relating to Pitt Rivers’ collection; his activities as the first inspector of ancient monuments; and his considerable correspondence. There are also documents, letters and papers relating to all other aspects of the collection and the local history of the area.

  Subjects

  Archives

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC