British Museum acquires 3.5m golden pendant linked to Henry VIII after high-profile campaign

"The British Museum has successfully raised the £3.5m it required to acquire the Tudor Heart, an intricately decorated golden pendant with links to Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. The purchase has been made possible after a four-month fundraising campaign, and thanks to donations including £1.75m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund as well as contributions from more than 45,000 members of the public."

"On the back are the letters "H" and "K", bound together with white thread. At the bottom of each face is a banner reading TOVS IORS (tousiors), the old French for "always'. Rachel King, the curator of Renaissance Europe and the Waddesdon Bequest at the museum, has suggested that this could also be a pun on the later, equivalent word "toujours", with the spacing making it sound like "tous [all] yours" when spoken aloud."

The British Museum acquired the Tudor Heart after raising £3.5m through a four-month fundraising campaign, including £1.75m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and donations from more than 45,000 members of the public. The pendant was discovered in 2019 in a Warwickshire field by amateur metal detectorist Charlie Clarke and was reported under the Treasure Act 1996. The front bears the white and red Tudor rose entwined with a pomegranate, and the reverse shows the letters H and K bound with white thread. Each face bears a banner reading TOVS IORS. Museum research suggests the pendant may have been made for a 1518 tournament celebrating Mary’s marriage, and the chain includes a fist-shaped clasp. The object is unique in its complexity for Henry VIII’s early reign and was previously known only from inventories.

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