museum collections

Inside the Loughborough Bellfoundry museum (FAR LEFT) and manufactory (LEFT), where the ‘Great Paul’ bell, the heaviest rotatable bell in the world, was cast in 1881 for St Paul’s Cathedral. The last time that bells were silenced in British history was during the Second World War, when it was agreed to use them only to signal an invasion. The Trust has recently received £246,500 from the Cultural Recovery Fund to enable it to continue opening to the public with social distancing measures and one way routes in place.

Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust

In October 2020, a public inquiry was under way to consider whether planning consent should be given for the conversion of London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry into a ‘boutique’ hotel. An alternative proposal has been developed by those who wish to…

Painting Antiquity: visions of Egypt

Three Victorian artists – Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Edward Poynter, and Edwin Long – helped to shape our image of the distant past. Stephanie Moser describes how their passion for archaeology and love of domestic objects produced a wealth of detailed, descriptive paintings.

Above Some of the small gold boats from Bronze Age Nors, which represent the ship that carried the sun through the darkness of the underworld at night. below There are a large number of amber artefacts on display at the museum, including Mesolithic and Neolithic pendants and figurines, like this bear.

National Museum of Denmark

The National Museum of Denmark has one of the oldest established collections of prehistoric artefacts in the world. It dates back to King Frederik VI, who set up The Royal Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities in 1807. More than 200 years after the Commission’s founding, the ground floor of the Prince’s Palace (where the collection moved in 1855) beautifully presents artefacts from across Denmark, which offer a detailed look at the people who lived there, as well as further objects from the land that once connected Denmark to Britain.

PHOTO: © The Trustees of the British Museum

News in brief

British Museum revamps Collection Online The British Museum has recently launched a new version of its Collection Online website, featuring over half its collections, making it one of the largest such databases of any global museum. The updated resource encompasses…

Mummified cat

What is it? This small wooden coffin contains the mummified remains of a cat and dates to the Ptolemaic period of Ancient Egypt, c.305-30 BC. Animals were highly honoured throughout Egyptian history. They were often associated with gods, and therefore…

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Taboo!

The Gods of the Pacific are powerful gods. Some have called them idols - more have called them art. And the Gods of the Pacific have had an enormous influence on European art throughout the 20th century. The Gods were powerful, and their power could be dangerous as well as life-enhancing. And this power had to be contained: the Polynesians had a word for the means by which this power could be contained and controlled: Tapu. Tapu means 'marked' or 'set apart': anything that was Tapu had to be wrapped and kept separate. And the word Tapu has also migrated to Europe and has become our word Taboo.