An 18th century carved treen Shakespeare bust medallion

An 18th century carved treen Shakespeare bust medallion, probably mulberry wood, with a silver mount, 8.7cm diameter, accompanied by a handwritten card inscribed 'Bust of Shakespere. Carved from the mulberry tree growing in the poet's garden at Stratford-on-Avon, & found in the ruins of Lincoln's Inn Theatre, (burnt 1752), when excavating to make the new Square. Supposed to be the identical medal worn by David Garrick when acting Shakespere's plays. See memoirs of D. Garrick by Thomas Davies. Pages 209, 210, 220.', with the signature on the reverse 'Miss Sheppard Burlington House'.

During the 18th century there was an informal tourist industry in Stratford with people visiting Shakespeare's tomb and the mulberry tree he supposedly planted at New Place. However the then owner Rev. Francis Gastrell became annoyed by the growing number of visitors and sometime in the 1750s felled the tree and later demolished New Place. Objects carved from the mulberry tree first started to appear around 1760/1770 after Gastrell sold the wood to local carvers and turners for example: Thomas Sharp and George Cooper, eager to make souvenirs. At this period of 'bardolatry' drinking vessels, tea caddies, tobacco stoppers, goblets and small boxes or caskets, and similar objects carved from the wood were highly prized.