| Abstrakt: |
In 1919 the international banker Jack Pierpont Morgan (son of the more famous John Pierpont Morgan) received the freedom and livery of the Goldsmiths' Company in London, in recognition of his role in securing American backing for the Allied effort in the First World War. He gave the Company a piece of Tudor domestic silver, a double bell salt, to mark his gratitude and to complement the historic plate collection that the Company was building to rival that of national museums. The Company's Court Books, as recently analysed by David Mitchell, also reveal the importance of Morgan's salt in documenting the Company's role in hallmarking and trade regulation around 1600, adding to its significance within the collection. The context of Morgan's gift reveals much about the interrelated nature of banking and collecting, high finance and politics at the end of the First World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
