Editing Austen Henry Layard (section)

===Excavations and the arts===
[[File:Mr. Layard at Kooyoonjik.jpg|thumb|250px|left|A. H. Layard at Kuyunjik. Drawing by [[Solomon Caesar Malan]], 1850.]]
Layard remained in the neighbourhood of Mosul, carrying on excavations at [[Kuyunjik]] and [[Nimrud]], and investigating the condition of various peoples, until 1847; and, returning to England in 1848, published ''Nineveh and Its Remains'' (2 vols., 1848–1849).<ref name="EB1911"/>

To illustrate the antiquities described in this work he published a large folio volume of ''The Monuments of Nineveh. From Drawings Made on the Spot'' (1849). After spending a few months in England, and receiving the degree of [[Doctor of Civil Law|D.C.L.]] from the [[University of Oxford]] and the [[Founder's Medal]] of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], Layard returned to Constantinople as attaché to the British embassy, and, in August 1849, started on a second expedition, in the course of which he extended his investigations to the ruins of [[Babylon]] and the mounds of southern [[Mesopotamia]].  He is credited with discovering the [[Library of Ashurbanipal]] during this period.  His record of this expedition, ''Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon'',<ref>{{cite web|last1=Layard|first1=Austen Henry|title=Discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon...|url=https://archive.org/details/HHaAntigua90435LAYDis|website=Internet Archive|publisher=G. P. Putnam and Co.|access-date=8 March 2018|date=1853}}</ref> which was illustrated by another folio volume, called ''A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh'', was published in 1853. During these expeditions, often in circumstances of great difficulty, Layard despatched to England the splendid specimens which now form the greater part of the collection of [[Assyria]]n antiquities in the [[British Museum]].<ref name="EB1911"/> Layard believed that the native [[Syriac Christian]] communities living throughout the Near East were descended from the ancient [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]].<ref name="Cross 2005">{{cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |last= Cross |first= Frank Leslie |year= 2005 |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 |quote= In the 19th cent. A. H. Layard, the excavator of Nineveh, first suggested that the local *Syriac Christian communities in the region were descended from the ancient Assyrians, and the idea was later popularized by W. A. Wigram, a member of the Abp. Of Canterbury’s Mission to the Church of the East (1895–1915).|page=119 }}</ref>

Apart from the archaeological value of his work in identifying Kuyunjik as the site of [[Nineveh]], and in providing a great mass of materials for scholars to work upon, these two books of Layard were among the best written books of travel in the English language.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Layard was an important member of the [[Arundel Society]],{{sfn|Layard|1903|loc = Vol.1, p.vi}} and in 1866 he was appointed a trustee of the British Museum.<ref name="EB1911"/> In the same year Layard founded "Compagnia Venezia Murano" and opened a venetian glass showroom in London at 431 Oxford Street.
Today [[Pauly & C. - Compagnia Venezia Murano]] is one of the most important brands of venetian art glass production.