An astonishing 17th century table top, a Bronze Age axe found buried near Seahenge, the work of a pioneering photographer and a 1970s mobile disco.
Those are among some of the remarkable objects acquired by Norfolk Museums Service this year.
Curators have revealed their favourite acquisitions which were made in 2022.
Museum of Norwich (curator Bethan Holdridge)
1. Social history – a 1970s mobile disco made by David Clayton and Fitts Signs in Norwich
For years, this stylish mobile disco equipment belonged to Radio Norfolk personality David Clayton, who donated it to the museum service.
The disco front design came from a Spanish boutique carrier bag, which Norwich company Fitt Signs copied onto yellow Perspex in 1972.
It is at the Collections Centre at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse and can be viewed as part of the regular tours, but the aim is to get it displayed in the Museum of Norwich
2. Social History – Covid collecting (curator Hannah Henderson)
During the COVID 19 lockdowns, staff at the Museum of Norwich began collecting items they felt may one day sum up parts of life during the pandemic.
Items, not yet on display, ranged from newspapers featuring rising death rates, government posters relating to virus control, social distancing signs from shops and homemade signs thanking key workers.
Strangers’ Hall (curator Cathy Terry)
3. Social History – Victorian Bazaar doll and display
The complete Victorian Bazaar, with the original dressed doll in glazed dome, was made by Sarah Ann Leethem in the later 19th century.
The doll presides over a semi-circular tiered staging, on which well over a hundred assorted trinkets are carefully displayed, created from glass, bone, metal, textile, wood and card.
Donated by Anne Sykes, staff and expert volunteers are working to identify and record all the items before the bazaar goes on display at Strangers’ Hall in 2023.
Contemporary art – Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (curator Dr Rosy Gray)
4. Eight photographic C-prints by Ibrahim Mahama
This is the first major acquisition of Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama’s work by a UK museum and comprises eight photographic prints considering the internal migration of workers in Ghana and the extractive mining industry in the south of the country.
There are plans to put them on display when the Royal Palace Reborn project to transform the Castle Keep is completed in 2024.
Fine art, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (curator Dr Giorgia Bottinelli)
5. Eugène Boudin (1824-1898), Bordeaux, 1876, oil on canvas
Eugène Boudin lived in Bordeaux between 1873 and 1880 and painted 79 views of the port, including this one, bequeathed by Sir Timothy Colman.
Decorative art, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (curator Dr Francesca Vanke)
6. Pietre dure table top
A 17th century table-top of astonishing artistry, once owned by Norfolk’s famous Paston family is an example of the pietre dure technique - which means ‘hard stones’ in Italian.
At first glance, the table top looks to be beautifully painted, but its patterns of interlacing fruit, flowers and birds are actually made of semi-precious stones inlaid in black marble.
The table top is on display in the Country House gallery at Norwich Castle.
Archaeology – Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (curator Dr Tim Pestell)
7. A gold Anglo-Saxon bracteate from Brooke
This beautiful complete Early Anglo-Saxon bracteate was discovered by a metal detectorist in Brooke.
It is one of just 12 complete gold bracteates - a form of Scandinavian neck pendant dating from the 5th or 6th centuries - found in Norfolk.
It will go on display once the Anglo-Saxon Viking Gallery at Norwich Castle is reopened.
Lynn Museum (curators Oliver Bone and Dayna Woolbright)
8. Snettisham Votive Assemblage
This group of nearly 100 coins was found by a metal detectorist near the village of Snettisham, Norfolk, famous for its hoards of gold torcs.
The coins date from the late Iron Age period, about 2,000 years ago. It is thought they were buried as an offering to the gods.
The hoard is on display in the Lynn Museum reception area.
9. Bronze Age Axe from Holme Beach
This collection of Bronze Age artefacts was discovered on the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea, close to the location of the timber monuments, Seahenge and Holme II, although the palstave axes were not used to create the monuments.
The hand axe is on display in the Hoards exhibition at Lynn Museum.
Cromer Museum (curators Wayne Kett and Dr David Waterhouse)
10. Semi-fossilised section of wood from the Cromer Forest-bed formation
While a lump of wood may not appear the most fascinating object, this is a semi-fossilised remnant from the Cromer Forest-bed formation, and dates from between half a million to a million years old.
Donated after it was found on Mundesley Beach, the wood is being stabilised and preserved. It is not yet on display.
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