Augustus Wollaston Franks - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Franks died 21 May 1897, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Most of the items in his collections became the property of the nation, by bequest at his death, where they had not been donations in his lifetime. Franks purchased over 20,000 important objects for the British Museum's collections.

One of his best known donations was the ninth-century ivory Franks Casket from Northumbria, with its runic inscriptions. It had been dismissed as 'some Ancient carvings in ivory', and turned down by the Museum's Trustees in 1858 when offered to them for 100 guineas. In 1867, Franks gave the casket to the British Museum as a gift.

In the case of the collection of Samuel Rush Meyrick, of arms and armour, Franks failed to persuade George Ward Hunt to purchase it complete for the nation when Augustus W. H. Meyrick put it up for sale around 1871. The Meyrick Collection went to auction, and was broken up, but Franks did buy and then donate items such as the Meyrick Helmet.

When the British Museum was considering buying the ceramics collection of Sir Andrew Fountaine and his heirs, which came onto the market in 1884, Franks eased the deal by matching the money required with purchases of his own.