Collection Highlights: Antiquities

 

Guy Fawkes's lantern

ANTguyfawkeslantern

Sheet iron, 34.5 cm high. AN1887.2.

Originally the lamp had a horn window, and could also be closed completely to hide the light. Given to the University in 1641 by Robert Heywood, son of a Justice of the Peace who had been present at the arrest of Guy Fawkes in the cellars of Parliament House, when the ‘Gunpowder Plot' was foiled on 5th November 1605. Transferred from the Bodleian Library to the Ashmolean in 1887.

Ark to Ashmolean (Gallery 8), Ground Floor, Case Q016

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