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TRACKING THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT ROLLS: FROM JEWEL HOUSE TO ARCHIVES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2025

Jane A Lawson Open the ORCID record for Jane A Lawson [Opens in a new window]
Jane A Lawson*
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Jane A Lawson, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
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Email: jane.a.lawson@att.net
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Abstract

The Tudor and Stuart New Year's gift exchange rolls were prepared every year. The manuscripts were kept in the Jewel House as an audit and accounting record of the inventory and were removed when the contents of the Jewel House were dispersed in 1649. A total of thirty-five rolls of the Tudor and Stuart exchanges are known to be extant. Between the mid-seventeenth century and the present time these manuscripts were held in private muniment collections, sold at auctions and intermittently studied by dilettantes. Individuals purchased the rolls for personal study and as curiosities. Antiquarians and Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London were interested in and recognised the value of these gift rolls. Antiquarian book dealers and autograph collectors enhanced the rarity of royal signatures and emphasised the rarity of these manuscripts. Sale catalogues of various bookdealers and auction houses record the path of the gift rolls from and/or into private collections and archives. Presently, while they should be included with the other state papers, these manuscripts are in the custody of eleven different archival locations in three countries. This paper tracks the preservation of these manuscripts through their ownership journeys and the records related to their locations.

Keywords

New Year's gift exchangesmanuscript transmissionSociety of Antiquaries of Londonauction housesrare book dealers

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Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 105 , October 2025 , pp. 95 - 117
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London

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