Metal & Stone
At the age of 10, Chester Beatty is said to have outbid others at a public auction to secure a piece of pink calcite for his growing mineral collection. This childhood interest is credited with guiding Beatty towards his profession as a mining specialist, but it also remained important to him as a collector. Today, a dazzling array of precious and semi-precious stones can be found within Beatty’s vast Chinese snuff bottle collection. Lustrous metals and gems also grace the covers of books, in particular the so-called treasure bindings.
Brass pencase with fitted inkwell
1750-1850
Turkey
CBL Is Ca2
Highlights
- List
- Grid
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Treasure binding
17th century
Greater Armenia
CBL Arm 5841 / 9
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Snuff bottle of pale brown and opaque white banded agate
1800-1880
China
CBL C 06282 / 9
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Serpentine stone book-rest
c. 1900
Pakistan
CBL Is X63 / 9
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Ordination text
18th or 19th century
Burma
CBL Bu 12344 / 9
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Discussion of carriage with a league recording drum (Yubi ji liguche shuo)
1778
China
CBL C 10055 / 9
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Cloissonné enamelled triptych with Virgin and Child and St Nicholas
c. 1800
Russia
CBL WX 236 / 9
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Bronze 12 nummias of Justinian or Jusstin II and Maurice
527-602
Alexandria (Egypt)
CBL Cpt 815.57 / 9
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Brass pencase with fitted inkwell
Turkey
1750-1850
CBL Is Ca28 / 9
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Brass astrolabe
1733-1766
Isfahan (Iran)
CBL Is Sc69 / 9