Christie’s has announced that they will offer The Coleridge Collar, one of the most important surviving relics of the Tudor age, at the auction of Important European Furniture, Sculpture and Tapestries on 6 November 2008 in London.

The only known, complete surviving collar of office from the time of Henry VIII, it is thought to have been gifted personally by the King to Sir Edward Montagu (circa 1485-1557), Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, member of the Privy Council, executor of the King’s will and governor to his son and heir, King Edward VI.

An extremely rare survival of Renaissance English goldsmith-work, the collar was made circa 1546-47, at the time that Michelangelo was appointed chief architect of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Strikingly similar to the example worn by Sir Thomas More in Hans Holbein the Younger’s famous portrait, it is expected to realise £200,000 to £300,000.

The collar has been subject to scientific analysis which dates the gold to between 1545 and 1551, and is thought to have been given personally to Sir Edward Montagu by King Henry VIII in 1546 on his appointment to the role of Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir Edward was a member of the Privy Council, governor to Henry’s son and heir Edward VI, and one of 16 executors of the King’s will. The collar was worn by Sir Edward’s successors to the role of Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas until Lord Coleridge merged the office with the post of Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s bench in 1880, at which point the role became known as Lord Chief Justice of England. As this point, the collar became superfluous and became the personal property of Lord Coleridge. It passed by family descent and has changed ownership only once since the 19th century.

Posted: 10|11|08 at 10:32 am. Filed under: UK News.