Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Collector · Donor

Lady Margaret Loch

fl. 1938–1983 · United Kingdom

Widow of the 2nd Baron Loch, living at Ayios Epiktitos near Kyrenia, who gave about 300 Cypriot antiquities to the Royal Ontario Museum in 1965 and her Kyrenia house to the state in 1966.

Biography

In the summer of 1965 the Dowager Lady Loch gave the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto about 300 Cypriot antiquities, among them pottery, glass and jewellery, which made its Cypriot holdings the second largest in North America2. The exhibition catalogue describes her as the widow of Major-General Lord Loch, the 2nd baron, and a daughter of a Marquess of Northampton1. The Museum showed the gift in the Lionel Massey Memorial Exhibition, to 26 December 1966, in memory of Lionel Massey3. More than 200 pots were washed before cataloguing, and Alison Harle wrote the section on lamps2. The catalogue notes that the collection held no Archaic limestone votive statues and none of the late painted vases of the Orientalizing style, which the Museum already had1.

Lady Loch lived at Ayios Epiktitos, Kyrenia, where D. A. Bannerman and W. M. Bannerman dedicated Birds of Cyprus (1958) to her7. In 1966 she gave the Department of Antiquities a house overlooking Kyrenia harbour and a large collection of folk art6. Stylianou-Lambert calls her Lady Margaret Loch and says the gift founded the Cypriot Folk Art Museum, established in 19675. The house lies in the area occupied since 1974.

How she formed the antiquities collection is not recorded. In 1974-75 the Royal Ontario Museum bought two animal vases of the 7th century BC "formerly in the Loch collection"4.

Life and work

  1. 1938
    Kew records interesting plant collections received from Lady Loch from different parts of Cyprus (Kew Bulletin 1938); a Kyrenia-district specimen near Myrtou is credited to her, 10 Feb 1939.

    CyprusRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1938). Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information 1938, no. 10. p. 76, p. 76; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1949). Kew Bulletin 1949, no. 1. p. 142, p. 142

  2. 1958
    The Bannermans dedicated "Birds of Cyprus" to the Dowager Lady Loch of Ayios Epiktitos, Kyrenia.

    Ayios EpiktitosD. A. Bannerman, W. M. Bannerman (1958). Birds of Cyprus

  3. 1965
    Gave about 300 Cypriote antiquities (pottery, glass, jewellery, terracotta figurines, lamps, bronze, stone), Early Bronze Age to Roman, to the Royal Ontario Museum, in the summer of 1965; this made the museum's Cypriote collection the second largest on the continent.

    TorontoRoyal Ontario Museum (1966). Annual report: July 1965 - June 1966; N. Leipen (1966). The Loch Collection of Cypriote Antiquities: Lionel Massey Memorial Exhibition. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

  4. 1965
    Lady Loch donated to the Government a house in Kyrenia holding a folk art collection, to be used as a Folk Art Museum; the Department of Antiquities will soon begin work to make it usable.

    Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release No. 6 of 23 September 1965, «Η λαίδη Λωχ εδώρησεν οικίαν εις την Κυβέρνησιν»

  5. 18 October 1966 – 26 December 1966
  6. 1966
    Donated to the Cyprus state part of her folk-art collection and her house at Kyrenia, to found a museum; the Cypriot Folk Art Museum was established in 1967.

    KyreniaTheopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Alexandra Bounia (2016). The Political Museum: Power, Conflict, and Identity in Cyprus. Routledge, p. 55; P. Aronsson, G. Elgenius (eds) (2011). Making National Museums (chapter on national museums in Cyprus), p. 183

  7. 1967
    Lady Margaret Loch, first resident of Kyrenia, donated a house by the harbour to serve as a folk art museum, which already holds many exhibits.

    Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release No. 1 of 20 May 1967, «Η ετήσια έκθεσις του Τμήματος Αρχαιοτήτων»

  8. 1967
    Lady Margaret Loch donated a house with a large folkloric collection to the Republic, enabling the Department to establish a Museum of Folk Art at Kyrenia.

    Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release No. 1 of 20 May 1967, «Annual report of the Director of the department of antiquities»

  9. 1967
    The Department of Antiquities announced that the newly established Folk Art Museum of Kyrenia, housed in a house bequeathed by Lady Margaret Lock on the harbour and adapted at the Department's expense, would open on 27 December 1967.

    Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release of 23 December 1967, «Μουσείον Λαϊκής Τέχνης Κυρηνείας // Πιστοποιητικά Απορίας // Θερμοκρασίαι»

  10. 1968
  11. 1974–1975
    The ROM bought two rare Cypriot animal vases of the 7th century BC "formerly in the Loch collection".

    TorontoRoyal Ontario Museum (1975). Annual report: July 1974 / June 1975

  12. Undated
    Donated her house and her original folk art collection to the Kyrenia Folk Art Museum.

    A. Pierides, "The Kyrenia Folk Art Museum", Cyprus Today vol. 7, no. 2-3 (April–September 1969), pp. 18–19, p. 18.

Through their hands

1 record
  1. 1965

    GiftLady Margaret Loch donated part of her folk arts collection and her house in Kerynia to the state for a museum.

    With the stateStylianou-Lambert & Bounia 2016, p. 105

Connections

1 person

Objects

Mentioned in

7 mentions

Documents · 5

Institutions · 1

  • Royal Ontario Museum

    1965

    Lady Margaret Loch gave the museum the Loch Collection of Cypriote Antiquities, about 300 objects.

    Annual report 1966

Sources

  1. 1.N. Leipen (1966). The Loch Collection of Cypriote Antiquities: Lionel Massey Memorial Exhibition. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
  2. 2.Royal Ontario Museum (1966). Annual report: July 1965 - June 1966.
  3. 3.Royal Ontario Museum (1966). Staff Bulletin (November 1966).
  4. 4.Royal Ontario Museum (1975). Annual report: July 1974 / June 1975.
  5. 5.Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Alexandra Bounia (2016). The Political Museum: Power, Conflict, and Identity in Cyprus. Routledge.
  6. 6.P. Aronsson, G. Elgenius (eds) (2011). “Making National Museums (chapter on national museums in Cyprus)”.
  7. 7.D. A. Bannerman, W. M. Bannerman (1958). Birds of Cyprus.
  8. 8.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1938). “Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information 1938, no. 10”. p. 76.
  9. 9.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1949). “Kew Bulletin 1949, no. 1”. p. 142.
  10. 10.Desmond Morris (1985). The Art of Ancient Cyprus, with a check-list of the author's collection. Oxford, Phaidon Press in association with Jonathan Cape.
  11. 11.Royal Ontario Museum (1983). The Search for Alexander: supplement to the catalogue.
  12. 12.Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release No. 6 of 23 September 1965, «Η λαίδη Λωχ εδώρησεν οικίαν εις την Κυβέρνησιν».
  13. 13.Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release No. 1 of 20 May 1967, «Η ετήσια έκθεσις του Τμήματος Αρχαιοτήτων».
  14. 14.Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release No. 1 of 20 May 1967, «Annual report of the Director of the department of antiquities».
  15. 15.Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release No. 1 of 1 June 1968, «Annual report of the Dept. Of Antiquities for 1967».
  16. 16.Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus, press release of 23 December 1967, «Μουσείον Λαϊκής Τέχνης Κυρηνείας // Πιστοποιητικά Απορίας // Θερμοκρασίαι».
  17. 17.A. Pierides, "The Kyrenia Folk Art Museum", Cyprus Today vol. 7, no. 2-3 (April–September 1969).
  18. 18.N. Leipen, 1966, The Loch Collection of Cypriote Antiquities: Lionel Massey Memorial Exhibition, leaf 7.
  19. 19.1966, Annual report: July 1965 - June 1966, Greek and Roman Department; 1967, Annual report: July 1966 - June 1967, Director's report.

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