S&SWM PR papers L2068

L2068

April 14/98 | 5 Beaumont Crescent | West Kensington | London W

Ansd | Apr. 26/98 | Buckland

Dear Genl. Pitt-Rivers

I have just learnt that some relics which I saw two years ago, & believe to be of great interest are for sale, & knowing you are a collector I think you will pardon me for calling your attention to them.

They belonged to an old lapidary who had discovered them in a cave in the Great Orme's Head, and were described some years ago by Professor Boyd Dawkins as of Neolithic age. The owner died at Xmas, & I now hear his sister is selling or offering for sale, all the curiosities he had collected, & amongst them the necklace found with the Neolithic remains in the cave, which will probably thus pass into the hands of some dealer in curiosities, instead of finding its proper place in some national collection. The marked teeth are I think rare, if not unique in Britain, although found in French & Belgian caves.

I wrote a little paper on the subject for the Anthropological Society, which was returned to me for the reason given in the annexed letter, I sent it to you herewith as more explanatory than a letter, & if it should be to you in oft-told tale you will perhaps kindly return it to me, & pardon me for writing to you of things already known, but which seem of special interest to

yours greatly obliged

AW Buckland

-------------

L2076

Paper returned, Apr 28/98

April 27th 1898 | 5 Beaumont Crescent | West Kensington W.

Dear Genl Pitt-Rivers

I am sorry I cannot give you any address in Llandudno with regard to the necklace, bears teeth & horse's jaw with marks upon them, about which I wrote to you. I thought you might probably have a correspondent in the neighbourhood, or some agency employed by you in such transactions, or might know the owner of the property who allowed the old lapidary to take possession of the cave in which he had discovered the neolithic human remains, & their ornaments. The cave itself is most interesting, & the genuineness of the discovery was endorsed at the time by Boyd Dawkins, so that I trust it may not now be given over to the tender mercies of the excursionist & curiosity seeker. My informant was a lady from Llandudno who knowing I was interested in the matter called to tell me that the old lapidary, whose name I think was Kennion [insert] drick [end insert] was dead & that his sister was selling all his curios as fast as she could. He had a few good things & a lot of rubbish all which, with the cave containing some of the Neolithic remains still in their original matrix, & a Camera Obscura which he had erected in the Garden he exhibited at 2d a head

My informant said it was rumoured that the authorities of Owen's College were thinking of purchasing some of the things, but she feared that the old man's sister would accept the first good offer, not caring what became of the things so perhaps ere this they are well dispersed.

I am very sorry to hear you are invalided, but trust the ailment is transitory. I see at last there is some chance of the establishment of an Anthropological Museum & Bureau of Ethnology in London I remember that you brought forward a plan for such an institution some years ago, & trust now your scheme may be adopted I was glad to see that Mr Rudler had been elected President of the Anthropological Institute, but I have not seen him, as I am not able now to attend the coming meetings. I should like my little paper back some day, at your convenience.

Yours very truly
AW Buckland

This item does not appear in the catalogue of the second collection. These necklace teeth might be those shown here which are now in the National Museum of Wales and were found by Thomas Kendrick in the so-called Kendrick's Cave, he was a stone mason. See also here.

The correspondent is Anne Walbank Buckland whose items are part of the founding collection and may therefore have known Pitt-Rivers before 1880.

Transcribed by AP July 2011 for the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers project