GOLD AND SILVER WORK. Belonging to the 'Mycenᄉan' or prehistoric period are the objects from Cyprus (Enkomi) in Table Cases U (note bull's head earrings) and T (North side of room), and from ᆭgina, Crete, and Rhodes (Case T). The early Greek Period is illustrated by objects from Ephesus and Kameiros (Case T); and the chronological order is continued in the cases against the north wall with objects of a Phoenician character (gold bowl from Agrigentum, Sicily, with repousse bulls; objects from Sardinia; silver girdle with reliefs; gold wreaths). Here, too, is the Early Etruscan work. The Best Greek Period (420-280 B.C.) is illustrated in Case west to the south of Case X (Nos. 1947 and 1999 are noteworthy). In the desk-cases along the entrance-wall are the Later Etruscan, the Grᄉco-Roman, and the Roman works. The desk-cases by the south wall contain the collection of Rings, with incised, relief, and engraved designs. Between the windows are upright cases with Greek and Roman Silver Work, including objects found at Chaource and elsewhere in France.
On the top of Case T (to the right on entering) is the Portland Vase, a work of the early Roman Empire, found in a Roman tomb, and known also as the Barberini Vase; it was deposited in the Museum in 1810 by its owner, the Duke of Portland. It is made of glass in two layers, white on blue, the white being cut away cameo-wise, to show the designs in relief. The vase was deliberately shattered by a demented person in 1845, but it was pieced together again. On the west end of Case T, Roman Gold Vase dredged up off Samos (plain, but rich-toned and shapely). On Case U, Ivory Draught-Box, with reliefs (from Enkomi). On Case west Silver Situla, with a fine frieze of the Seasons (from Vienne; badly damaged). Above the desk-cases are examples of classical Wall Painting.
Terracotta Room. The early figures were buried with the dead as symbolic of offerings; later this practice seems to have become merely conventional.
On the south (right) side are terracottas from Greece and Eastern Greek colonies; on the north (left) side are Italian specimens. Both collections begin chronologically at the farther (east) end of the room. South side: Wall Cases 1-8. Archaic terracottas; 9-16. Fourth-century figurines, mainly from Tanagra and from Eretria in Eub£a; 17-24. Terracottas of the decline; No. C 529 in Case 17 (two women on a couch) should be noted. North side (beginning at the east end): Wall Cases 48-41. Architectural pieces, also moulds; 40-33. Figures from south Italy (Magna Grï¾µcia) up to the Grï¾µcoRoman period; 32-25. Later terracottas, characterized (like the later vases) by excessive decoration (note two girls playing knuckle-bones). In the middle of the room are larger figures and objects in terracotta; at the east end, B 630, Archaic Etruscan sarcophagus, with figures of a man and woman, from Cervetri.
Opposite the exit from this room, beyond the south bay of the Central Saloon, is the entrance to the Rooms of Coins and Medals, which contain fine series of coins and medals of all countries and periods. The collections include also some curiosities, e.g. the gold touch-piece presented by Queen Anne to the young Samuel Johnson. Temporarily exhibited in the annexe are pearwood and wax medallions (in the wall-cases) and the Whitcombe Greene Collection of Plaquettes, mainly of the Italian Renaissance (in the desk and wall-cases).