I originally blogged about this item back in August, although the original auction date and estimated price have changed.
From The BBC:
The only known surviving chain of office from the time of Henry VIII is being put up for auction.
The king gave the gold Coleridge Collar to one of his closest advisers, Sir Edward Montagu, around 1546.
The chains showed allegiance to the monarch and the intricacy of the design and quality of the metal signified the status of the wearer.
It is expected to fetch
That is AMAZING. What a piece of history!
Anybody want to break open the piggy banks and pitch in together to buy it? We can take turns wearing it!
hmmmm. That chain looks a lot like the chain More wore. I wonder if there is any posibility that Henry kept More’s chain?
Carlyn,
As the article notes, about 20 of the chains were produced, and this one was apparently made specifically for Montagu in about 1546. But in answer to your question, More surrendered his chain of office when he resigned as Lord Chancellor in 1532. His chain would have been returned to the treasury and placed in the Jewel Tower at Westminster. It may have been re-used intact, broken up and the pieces re-used in other chains (possibly even Montagu’s chain), or it may have been melted down for its gold content. We just do not know, and there is no real way to determine.
More’s chain, however, was made up entirely of S’s, without the intermingled tassled double knots. And the Tudor Rose appeared on More’s chain as a pendant, not as a link of the chain itself. More’s version of a chain of office can be seen in the famous Holbein portrait of him, and also in copies of the now-lost More family portrait by Holbein (the original was destroyed in a fire, but several early copies still exist).
If only I had a spare half million laying around lol