Find something on display: Explorers and Collectors

Trapezoid “spangle” made of white washed metal sheet, with punched dots around the edges. This may have been worn on a necklace, or it could have been mounted on another object as decoration.

These are practical tools made from local materials. The stones are fixed to the wooden handles with gum from trees.

Green glazed amulet with three row pearl border. Card for Egyptian IV states “Amulet in fused green enamel”.

Described by Lansdell as from ‘Chambar’, a place in Afghanistan. The colourful embroidery is typical of Afghan work. Lansdell bought them at a bazaar in Tashkent, a Russian trading city north of the Afghan border. He thought they would ‘be warm and both useful, when tied at the bottoms’ during his journeys on horseback across the continent.
Lansdell had his photograph taken wearing these trousers.

Small dagger in gold-covered scabbard collected in 1821-26.

Small dagger in gold-covered scabbard collected in 1821-26.

This hair pin has four long prongs and a spoon-shaped handle, which has been described as a snuff ladle.

The smaller headrest is typical of the Ashanti people in the former Gold Coast, now Ghana. It is decorated with a wash of blue pigment. The larger headrest follows the Ghanaian shape but has elements of southeast African decoration. Cross-cultural styles like this were used in South Africa. The original black paint has worn with use.
Headrests were used by African men of fairly high status and were significant personal objects, protecting the owner’s head and hairstyle.

Two of the Yoruba sculptures are ritual ‘deceased-twin substitute’ carvings. The third is a small figure with distinctive hairstyle. Such African sculptures, with bold abstract features, have had a huge influence on modern artists. The doll is Ashanti from Ghana and would be carried by a pregnant woman to promote beauty in her unborn child.
Ghana is a centre of gold mining and the Ashanti are best known for their intricate tiny brass sculptures used to weigh gold. Dried and decorated gourd rinds are from the Hausa people, northern Nigeria, as is the Qur’anic writing board of the Hausa people has been decorated to celebrate a pupil’s achievement at school, and the embroidered cap.

Captain J Graham brought back three spearheads and two spears described as ‘small’ but with shafts so long they had to be broken for transport. One spearhead was said to have belonged to the Khalifa, the Mahdi’s successor.

The weapon with double-balled handle and openwork decoration on the blade is from the Akan area of the Gold Coast and probably an Ashanti sword.

This is a Congo ceremonial sword used among the Ngombe, Ngbandi and Lokele peoples.

A souvenir with broken blade. It belonged to a fighter in the Islamic Mahdi army massacred by British troops.

The pot was formed by pressing clay into an earthen hollow, making two half-rounds then joining them together and smoothing by hand. It sits on a ring when carried on the head. The jug is used for washing before entering a mosque.

Framed relics from the battlefield of Albuhera presented to the 1st Battalion of the Buffs by the Mayor of Albuhera in 1926.
The number of musket balls collected for this gift gives some idea of the thousands that must have been fired during the battle. The flint pieces were part of the musket firing mechanism and would strike a spark that fired the gunpowder and propelled the musket ball.

Necklace of 12 amber beads, of various shapes and sizes. Amber was likely imported from the Baltic, and would have been expensive to purchase; these beads would have belonged to someone very wealthy.

String of 14 amethyst beads. Amethyst beads, mainly from trade routes that led through Germany, are more commonly found in Kent than elsewhere in the country.

Small ornament in red stone/sun disc amulet of carnelian.

Faience amulet of a pregnant woman / taweret. Hole for cord, broken at bottom.

Green amulet in the shape of an eye.

Glazed amulet in the shape of a collar or Bes.

Bes, grotesque amulet figure for suspension with blue glaze

Faience amulet, possible obscene. Hole for cord has broken off the back.

Large amulet in the shape of the cat goddess.

Small bird amulet.

Cat amulet.

Faience amulet in the shape of a djed pillar; the Egyptian symbol of stability. Hole for cord.

A green faience amulet depicting a Ram, an animal significant to more than one deity in Ancient Egypt. It possibly represents either Amun-Re, king of the Gods, or Khnum the potter.

Faience amulet in the shape of a lion. Hole for cord should be on the back but has been broken off.

Faience amulet in the shape of a ram-headed sphinx. Hole for cord above back.

Faience amulet in the shape of a standing goddess. Hole for cord above head.

Faience glazed bead in the shape of an eye.

Egyptian Sacred eye/Wadjet eye amulet.

Wedjat eye amulet.

Green bead in the shape of a dog-headed ape/standing baboon.

Faience green bead. Rabbit/hare.

Faience bead in the shape of Bes.

Anubis amulet made of stone. First two fingers from mummy’s stone placed on left side of pelvis inside the body to ward off evil.

Tagged with a green label, like most of Lansdell’s collection, describing where acquired.

Brooch. This type of brooch is sometimes called a ‘caterpillar’ brooch on account of their shape.

Orange stone bead with six indentations.

Faience bead.

Faience bead with a hole for cord.

Semi-precious stone bead with a hole for cord.

Glass bead.

A blue glazed bead.

A blue glass bead.

A green glazed bead.

A green glazed bead.

A blue faience bead.

An inscribed cylindrical green bead with a hole for cord.

White scarab bead.

Pink stone bead. Scarab.

A blue bead in the shape of a bull.

Green bead in the form of a cat.

Amulet. Bast green bead in the form of cat goddess.

Glass Bead.

Blue Egyptian beads strung on a modern string and clasp with a Roman lock.

Beads on modern string.

Brass wire strung with two opaque yellow ‘annular’ beads and one unpolished cobalt blue ‘annular’ bead. This may have been a breast ornament – it would have been pinned onto a piece of clothing.

String of beads.

String of 69 beads of various colours.

Necklace containing four cylindrical (bugle) beads and what were originally quadruple pearl-like beads, some of which have since separated into single, double and triple beads.

Carinated glass Bell-Beaker with fine white trials below the rim, and on the base. As this glass has no base, it has been suggested it was used for toasts at feasts; the drink would have had to be downed in one go.

Bird brooch, silver gilt, garnet inset in eye and tail, niello inlay.

Bird brooch, silver gilt, garnet inset in eye and tail, niello inlay.

Bird shaped brooch of a Frankish type, with traces of gilt on the exterior.

Cups for drinking wine or water, of a type called a skyphos.

This double-edged sword was used for cutting. The hilt (sword handle) has a bell-shaped pommel (end) and little protection for the knuckle.

Kentish bracteates. Bracteates, thin single-sided gold medals, were worn as pendants on a string around the neck. They may have been seen as a protective amulet.

This photograph shows soldiers of the Buffs in the Crimea with a Brigade commander: from left, an Officer, Major Maude, a Sergeant Major, Brigadier-General Charles Thomas Van Straubenzee (seated), a Corporal-Bugler and an Adjutant. Roger Fenton went to the Crimea as the first official war photographer. Cameras needed a long time to create a picture and he was only able to take posed group shots like this one, or landscapes. Despite the poor conditions he produced 350 photographs, which were published in the Illustrated London News.

Bronze Sekhet.

‘Coptic bowl’. Bowls of this type have been found in several other Anglo-Saxon cemetaries in Kent. They were made in Egypt, and probably were imported from Alexandria in the seventh century AD, arriving to Britain via the river Rhine.
Thought to be from Wickhambreaux (1886).

Equal arm brooch, set with garnets in gilt copper.

Rare Kentish silver brooch of cruciform shape.

Bronze gilt brooch of Jutish type without a pin.

Electroform copy of bronze gilt brooch - the original is at the British Museum. The earliest Saxons regularly used almost abstract animal designs on their jewellery.

Circular silver jewelled disc brooch of Kentish work set with garnets; cloisonee work and gold wire filigree.

Bronze brooch of foreign type, possibly from Belgium or the Lower Rhine region of Germany.

Silver-gilt brooch with garnet and greenstone.

Square brooch set with garnets at each corner.

Jeweled brooch of Jutish type, set with garnets.

Circular brooch set with garnets, one is missing.

Two radiate-headed brooches with five inlaid garnets.

Handmade, burnished, handled pottery mug with round base, brownish ware. Found close to the head of a child. Burnishing (rubbing a pot with a leather cloth) would make the mug watertight and also a lot smoother to the touch.

Bucket/vat with handle, fragments inside.