The Yusupov Crucifix is part of a collection of silver objects and medical instruments given to Queen's University between 1980 and 1984 by Anne Hull Grundy, an art historian and collector, in honour of her husband, John Hull Grundy, a skilled medical artist and draughtsman with a particular interest in entomology.
Mrs Hull Grundy was the daughter of a Nuremburg family of bankers forced to flee Nazi Germany and who had settled in London. She began collecting as a child and built up an extensive art collection, specialising in jewellery and Japanese netsuke. It was John who inspired Anne's interest in medical instruments and medals and they soon became leading authorities and enthusiasts.
At the age of 21 Anne retreated to her bed, the victim of a mysterious disease which no one was ever able to define. Bedridden, she described herself as, "a large spider sitting at the centre of a web of dealers, salesrooms and museums," and indicated, usually in rather blunt terms, that one of her greatest pleasures lay in outwitting dealers. Here a dealer describes a visit:
"I was shown almost immediately into Mrs Grundy's bedroom which was occupied by a bed of truly heroic proportions and from the centre of the eiderdowns and furs I heard the familiar slim voice and rasping criticisms. Almost entirely obscured by bed clothes I could see a very large woman, wearing a balaclava and mittens, who was flanked by cases containing the netsuke collection, and well over a thousand antique jewels were concealed in mahogany cabinets with shallow drawers…"
Mrs Hull Grundy did much of her buying by post. Over a hundred parcels full of jewellery were sent to her each year from one firm alone. Her thousands of donations were spread throughout the UK, usually despatched in sweet and biscuit tins by registered mail or by a convoy of taxis. The most important went to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the British Museum, and the Ulster Museum received much of its collection of antique jewellery from her.
Mrs Hull Grundy could be fearsome to deal with. If the museum directors seemed less than prompt in thanking her for her gifts, then a barrage of telegrams would be sent containing overt threats of legal proceedings and even mutilation. She threatened to come back and haunt the University if a catalogue of her collection was not published - it was, eventually. But, for all this, she had a sharp mind and knew her subject.
In 1984 Queen's conferred an honorary doctorate on Professor John Hull Grundy, by then bedridden himself, with the Vice-Chancellor travelling to the Hull Grundy home in Hampshire for the ceremony. On 7 August that same year Anne Hull Grundy finally succumbed to her illness and one week later, on the eve of her funeral, her husband also died.
More of the Hull Grundy Bequest can be seen on display in the foyer of the Queen's University Medical Biology Centre, Lisburn Road, Belfast.