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News: Export bar placed on rare Neolithic 'Jadeite' axe-head with Dorset connection
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Submitted by coldrum on Friday, 23 February 2007 Page Views: 641
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 Country: England County: Dorset Internal Links: 
External Links:
  Culture Minister, David Lammy, has placed a temporary export bar on a 'jadeite' Neolithic axe-head that once formed part of the collection of one of the fathers of British archaeology. This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the axe-head, which dates from before 4000 BC, in the United Kingdom.
The Minister's ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, run by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the axe-head is so closely connected with our history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune, of outstanding aesthetic importance and of outstanding significance for the study of Neolithic Britain.
Found near Sturminster Marshall, this Neolithic axe-head is one of only a hundred or so examples known from this country. It is a particularly fine specimen, beautifully shaped and polished, which shows off with considerable sophistication the tonalities and gradations of the fine hard 'jadeite' stone from which it is manufactured. Its importance is further enhanced by the fact that it once formed part of the historic collection of Lt-General Augustus Pitt Rivers, now recognised as one of the fathers of British archaeology.
Such axes were never functional, but were already high status 'heirlooms' when they reached Britain around 6000 years ago, having been made some centuries before from rock quarried in the Italian Alps. New research is contributing much to our understanding of them and their meaning in the lives of those who made and acquired them.
The decision on the export licence application for the axe-head will be deferred for a period ending on 20 April inclusive. This period may be extended until 20 July inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the axe-head at the recommended price of £24,000 (excluding VAT) is expressed.
Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the axe-head should contact the owner's agent through:
The Secretary
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council,
Victoria House,
Southampton Row
London WC1B 4EA
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.
2. The mottled green jadeite axe-head, which measures 19.2 cm, is of flat triangular form. It is highly polished to a mirror like sheen and has a curved cutting edge. An inscription, carefully painted on in white lettering, records its provenance as 'NEWTON PEVERILL, STURMINSTER MARSHALL, PRESENTED BY MRS CARTWRIGHT.
3. The axe-head once formed part of Lt. General Augustus Pitt Rivers' collection. Pitt Rivers was one of the foremost archaeologists and anthropologists of his age, and the museum he established at Farnham (distinct from the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford) was a remarkable reflection of a pioneering archaeologist's work and interests. It remained open until after the death of his grandson in 1966, when it was found to be too costly to keep up. Some finds had by then already been sold; most of the remaining British collection went to the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum; the rest (mainly ethnographic, but including some mainly non-local archaeological items) was dispersed.
4. Axes of this type are relatively rare in Britain, but they are of great significance. Brought into Britain from the earliest Neolithic (c 4000 BC) they were already 'heirlooms' having been made some centuries before, from rock quarried from sources in the Italian alps. The term 'jadeite' (with its inverted commas) is that generally agreed to describe pyroxene jade while the non-scientific term jade can be used for any of the greenish axes regardless of exact composition. It is clear that these attractive rocks were highly regarded in prehistory.
http://www.culture.gov.uk
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH
http://www.culture.gov.uk
gnn.gov.uk.
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