The Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire, has announced that its campaign to raise funds to purchase a ring once owned by the author has been successful.
In a statement on its website, the museum said its offer to buy the ring from singer Kelly Clarkson had been accepted.
It also tweeted: “Being the romantics we are the date for the ring to go on display will be Valentine's Day.”
The turquoise and gold ring was auctioned by Sotheby's last year and bought for £152,450 by Clarkson, who had intended to ship it to Texas.
The culture minister Ed Vaizey placed a temporary export bar on the Pride and Prejudice author’s ring to allow cultural institutions more time to raise the £152,450 needed to keep it in the UK.
In August, an anonymous donor gifted £100,000 towards the campaign to buy back the ring. The museum was then given until December to raise a further £49,000.
The rare artefact is one of only three pieces of jewellery known to have belonged to the author.
It is accompanied by papers documenting its history within Austen’s family, which reveal it passed firstly to her sister Cassandra, who then gave it to her sister-in-law Eleanor Austen, second wife of the Henry Thomas Austen (brother of Jane and Cassandra). It has remained in the family ever since.
At the time the export bar was placed, Philippa Glanville, from the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, said: “Jane Austen treasured her simple jewellery. This pretty ring, a rare survival, evokes her personality and expresses the strong feelings attached to rings at the time.”
In a statement on its website, the museum said its offer to buy the ring from singer Kelly Clarkson had been accepted.
It also tweeted: “Being the romantics we are the date for the ring to go on display will be Valentine's Day.”
The turquoise and gold ring was auctioned by Sotheby's last year and bought for £152,450 by Clarkson, who had intended to ship it to Texas.
The culture minister Ed Vaizey placed a temporary export bar on the Pride and Prejudice author’s ring to allow cultural institutions more time to raise the £152,450 needed to keep it in the UK.
In August, an anonymous donor gifted £100,000 towards the campaign to buy back the ring. The museum was then given until December to raise a further £49,000.
The rare artefact is one of only three pieces of jewellery known to have belonged to the author.
It is accompanied by papers documenting its history within Austen’s family, which reveal it passed firstly to her sister Cassandra, who then gave it to her sister-in-law Eleanor Austen, second wife of the Henry Thomas Austen (brother of Jane and Cassandra). It has remained in the family ever since.
At the time the export bar was placed, Philippa Glanville, from the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, said: “Jane Austen treasured her simple jewellery. This pretty ring, a rare survival, evokes her personality and expresses the strong feelings attached to rings at the time.”
