Locket with Assyrian winged protective figure

Following the excavation of Assyrian palaces in the mid-nineteenth century, ancient Mesopotamian imagery began to be used in European decorative arts, including jewelry and ceramics. Publicity in the form of news coverage and popular books around the excavations, removal of many sculptures from sites in northern Iraq to England and France, and public spectacles such as the reconstructed ‘Nineveh Court’ in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, London, fostered a fascination with Assyria and Assyrian art among the Victorian public.

The design on the front of this gold locket is based on the protective figures found throughout the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (r. ca. 883–859 BCE) at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu, biblical Calah) in northern Iraq. Inside are two miniature portraits, of an older man wearing a high collar and black tie, and a younger man in the uniform of a cadet at the Royal Military College (today Royal Military Academy) at Sandhurst.