Museum of London – Cheapside Hoard

The Cheapside Hoard is the world’s largest and finest collection of late 16th and early 17th century jewels and gemstones and is currently on display at the Museum of London. Studio ZNA chose Precision Lighting’s Pico 1 Surface LED spotlights to light the high security display cases which together house nearly 500 priceless items.

The Hoard itself forms a centrepiece of a major season on jewellery and will be displayed at the Museum of London until the end of April 2014. It has not been viewed as a whole since it was discovered a little over a century ago.‘ At nearly 500 glittering pieces, The Cheapside Hoard includes delicate finger rings, cascading necklaces, Byzantine cameos, a beautiful jewelled scent bottle, and a unique Colombian emerald watch,’ says Exhibition curator Hazel Forsyth. ‘This priceless collection of jewels is the City of London’s most exquisite stash of buried treasure, and it is the single most important source of our knowledge on early modern jewellery worldwide.’

Lighting designer Zerlina Hughes worked with interior design practice Ben Kelly Designs to modify the exhibition’s high security display cases. 108 Pico down-lights and their drivers are housed within hoods, which help to draw visitors’ eyes below a horizontal line, focusing their gaze away from the surrounding contemporary architecture. A further 28 Pico 1 Surface spotlights are also present within the cases, providing up-lighting for objects such as pendant jewellery.

Pico 1 Surface is a discreet LED spotlight, based on a minimal aesthetic and small footprint. Movement is aided with a low friction bearing rotation and constant torque tilt mechanism, both lockable in pan and tilt. Optics can be changed on site offering flexibility to the specifier and to ensure setting up and focusing is as simple and quick as possible. Pico 1 Surface is machined from Aerospace grade 6063-T6 aluminium, delivering a lumen package of 125lm at 1.6W.

“The museum is designed for flexibility, and services in the ceiling such as air-conditioning are visible. This has advantages for the museum but we needed to create a different aesthetic for this wonderful collection of tiny, glittering objects. These little LED spots provide localised lighting that makes these artefacts sparkle and reveals them in detail. They are designed to help you work fast and accurately.”

–  Zerlina Hughes, Founder and Creative Director, Studio ZNA