Visited the British Museum the other day and had a look at their jewellery collections. They hold some pieces that are quite impressive , amongst them one of my favourites, the mold gold cape.
According to the BM the cape was found on an ancient burial mound and it was being worn by a skeleton. It would have fitted its wearer thightly making it unable to move its arms with ease. Because of this the cape probably was worn only on special occasions.
The cape is really a whaowawzza piece of jewellery and it must have been heavy as hell, apart from being unpractical. But everything for beauty and status right? When the cape was found it was recovered in many small pieces, more or less crushed so to speak. So the skillful.. conservators at the museum reconstructed it, with great effort. Most fragments of the cape were bought while some were given as a gift to the museum by Sir W.C. Trevelyan amongst others.
This lovely little piece would not be too bad to wear at a party huh? Eventhough it probably was made for religious occasions it looks like a haute couture piece. The price for such a thing like this would today only have the sky as a limit... You would not only have to consider the amount of metall it would require but also the necessity of an extremly skilled goldsmith. As the cape was made from a single gold ingot and hammered into shape!
I want to try it on...
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