10 BRITISH MTTSEtTM 



of about 300 B.C., with a figure of Aphrodite, and three gold pendants of 

 about the same or rather earlier date ; and an early Greek bronze 

 statuette of Athena, of Peloponnesian style, 



British and Medieval Antiquities. 



Among the prehistoric acquisitions was a series of 96 quartzite imple- 

 ments from stratified deposits at Oldoway, Tanganyika Territory, 

 presented by the East African Archaeological Expedition (through 

 Dr. L.S.B, Leakey), and a series of stratified flints from Farnham 

 (Surrey), presented by Major A. G. Wade, A series of Romano- 

 British antiquities from the City of London was presented by the 

 Christy Trustees. A massive gold signet-ring with the crest of Digby, 

 attributed to Sir John Digby (d. 1533), found at Kidwelly Castle, was 

 presented by Earl Cawdor. 



Oriental Antiquities and Ethnography. 



The most important acquisition was a set of three bronze chariot-pole 

 finials, inlaid with gold, from Chin-ts un, of the Han dynasty, purchased 

 with the assistance of the National Art -Collections Fund. A pall made 

 of glass tesserae, of the same period and provenance, was also acquired. 

 A fourteenth century pottery albarello, probably Egyptian ; a Persian 

 pottery jug, probably from Rhages ; and a Rhages pottery cup of the 

 thirteenth century, presented by Mr. O. C. Raphael, may also be men- 

 tioned. Among the Oriental paintings were a page from a MS, of the 

 Ta'rikh-i-Alfi, with Mughal miniatures of the period of Akbar (pur- 

 chased with the assistance of the National Art-Collections Fund) ; a 

 page from a Persian MS. of the thirteenth century of the Materia 

 Medica of Dioscorides, presented by Sir Bernard Eckstein, Bart., who 

 also presented a fifteenth century miniature from Nizami's Layla and 

 Majnun ; a Persian drawing of dancing Dervishes (16th cent.) ; and a 

 Japanese painting of a dragon by Tani Buncho (first half of the nine- 

 teenth century). 



The Ethnographical acquisitions included a large and important 

 collection of West African textiles and Javanese ' batik,' presented by 

 Mr. C. A, Beving on behalf of Messrs. Beving & Co. ; a valuable series of 

 250 ethnographical objects from the Anglo -Egyptian Sudan, presented 

 by Major and Mrs. P. H. G. Powell-Cotton ; a group of objects from 

 S.E. Dutch New Guinea, presented by Lord Moyne ; a totem-pole from 

 Nass River, British Columbia ; the gold-plated finial of a state -umbrella 

 belonging formerly to the Ashanti chief Prempeh (presented by the 

 Christy Trustees) and a series of ancient Peruvian textiles from Nasca, 

 presented by Mr. Henry Van den Bergh through the National Art- 

 Collections Fund, 



Coins and Medals. 



The most important coins acquired were three silver staters of Abdera 

 of the fifth century, two of them (Apollo with Victory, and seated Hera) 

 being unique ; an electrum sixth of Phocaea of the fifth century B.C., 

 presented by Mr. H. C. Hoskier ; a very rare gold stater of Smyrna of 

 the time of Mithradates the Great ; an unpublished silver stater of 

 Lycia of the fifth century B.C. of the dynast Taththivaibi ; and an 

 unpublished Roman medallion of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, 



