%0 Journal Article
%T The provenance and context of the Giustiniani Medicine Chest
%A Julie Ackroyd
%D 2019
%V 
%N Spring 2019
%K Chios
%K Furniture
%K Genoa
%K Giustiniani
%K Interpretation
%K Italian
%K John Burdett
%K Materia Medica
%K medicine
%K Medicine Chest
%K Naval Medicine Chest
%K Ottoman
%K podestà
%K Provenance
%K Science Museum
%K Suleiman the Magnificent 1494-1566
%K Turk
%K Venetian
%K Wellcome Collection
%X In autumn 2019 the Science Museum will open its new Medicine Gallery, which is an opportunity to redisplay and reinterpret items from the collection. One object selected as a centrepiece for the new space is the Giustiniani Medicine Chest, which dates from the mid-sixteenth century. This object came into the Science Museum Collection in 1946 having originally been bought in Italy in 1924 by an agent of Sir Henry Wellcome for his medical collection. This article assesses its provenance and history.
%Z The Financial Times, 1 March 1924, p 1, Column 1, gives an exchange rate of Italian Lire to English Pound of 25.22 ½. This makes 10,500 lira approximately £416. Using the ‘Historic inflation calculator’ on-line, the purchase price of the chest in the current market would be equivalent to £22,500.

%Z Now known as Theodosia/Feodosia on the Crimea Peninsula, Ukraine.

%Z The coat of arms is described as: ‘Di rosso, al castello d'argento sormonto da tre torri, quella di mezzo piu elevata, aperto e fenestro del campo; col capo d'oro, all' aquila nascente di nero, coronata del campo.’ Crollalanza, G.B. di, cited in Burnett, 1982, p 327. This translates as: ‘Gules, a castle of silver overlay by three towers, the middle one higher, open field and fenestro; the Golden head, at the nascent Black Eagle, crowned of the field.’

%Z However, caution must be exercised when assessing the general condition of the chest. It entered the Wellcome Collection at a time when extensive restoration of items was not uncommon and no documentation exists to indicate if this particular object was restored and if so how much was undertaken.

%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/giustiniani-medicine-chest/
%J Science Museum Group Journal