Silver ring brooch (luckenbooth brooch) in the form of a crowned heart, Inverness (Scotland), c. 1800.

Silver ring brooch in the form of a crowned heart.

Lt. Col. G. B. Croft-Lyons Bequest

Lt-Col George Babington Croft Lyons George Babington Croft Lyons was an antiquary and collector who loaned, and later bequeathed, 978 objects (ceramics, sculpture, metalwork (particularly silver and pewter), textiles and woodwork) and 391 photographic negatives to the Museum. George Babington Croft Lyons was born on 15 September 1855. Nothing is known of his early life. On 23 May 1874 he was promoted to Lieutenant with the Essex Rifles. He was admitted Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, on 7 January 1904 and served on its Executive Council from 1908 to 1926; he was a Vice-President from 1917 to 1921. Croft Lyons was also actively involved with the Burlington Fine Arts Club, publishing a number of articles in the Burlington Magazine. Like his friend, George Salting, when Croft Lyons’s collection outgrew his house in Neville Street, Kensington, he loaned works for exhibition at the South Kensington Museum; these included ceramics, sculpture, metalwork (particularly silver and pewter), textiles and woodwork. Croft Lyons died in London on 22 June 1926, aged 71. He bequeathed to the Museum all the objects currently exhibited on loan (these amounted to 978 objects and 391 photographic negatives) together with ‘ten other objects to be selected from the works of art remaining in his house so far as these are not already disposed of by specific bequests’. The British Museum, National Gallery and Birmingham Art Gallery were also beneficiaries of Croft Lyons’ bequest.

Worn by women

The traditional jewellery of Norway and Scotland shows the strong historic and geographic links between the two countries.

In both places the ring brooch is the most distinctive item. They differ from modern brooches in the way they fasten. The wearer pulls the cloth of the garment through the central hole, and then spears it with the pin. The greater the strain on the pin, the more secure the fastening.

Heart brooches are one of the commonest surviving types of Scottish traditional brooch. They are sometimes called luckenbooth brooches, after the stalls round St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, where they were sold in the 19th century. They are also known as witches’ brooches. Small heart brooches were often fastened in children’s clothing for ‘averting the evil eye and keeping away witches’. Mothers also wore them to prevent the witches from stealing their milk. They were frequently given as love tokens. Women wore them at the neck of their shift to close the front opening.

This heart brooch has the letters CJ stamped on the back, which was the mark of Charles Jamieson, who worked in the northern town of Inverness from 1797 – 1819. He was a prolific maker of various kinds of silverware, including many heart brooches of this type. The stylised crown at the top and the slight projections at the sides and bottom are all characteristic of traditional Scottish heart brooches.

M.809-1926