For several months the Worcester News has published every Saturday a story about an  object in the collection of Worcestershire's museums service that is not always on public display. This is a selection of my personal favourites from the series.

All the objects featured are accompanied by informative descriptions that are beautifully written by museums service staff.

Malvern Gazette:

1. Badges

This 1970's jacket was donated to Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum's collections by a local lecturer who has been one of the Museum's most loyal supporters.

The jacket is covered in a considerable collection of pin badges that were amassed throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The eclectic mix of badges documents everything from popular culture to political movements and local visitor attractions.

Badges celebrating music like The Jam, Culture Club and Limahl, or films such as Grease and Staying Alive, sit juxtaposed next to those made to campaign against the poll tax, to support the miner's strike, CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) or Tony Benn's 1981 deputy leadership campaign.

The collection also contains many badges sold by local tourist attractions during those decades when badge collecting was popular amongst school children.

Anyone in their 40s and 50s who visited local attractions as a child will remember these old badges produced by the Severn Valley Railway, Worcestershire County Museum and Wroxeter Roman town.

Deborah Fox, Curator of Archaeology and Natural History, Museums Worcestershire

Malvern Gazette:

2. Embroidered casket

This gorgeous embroidered casket in Worcester City Museum's collection is about 350 years old.

Plain sewing on linen was often the first skill taught to young girls, followed by embroidered cross-stitch samplers.

The final skills for a girl to learn were lace stitches and raised work using gold and silver thread combined with coloured silks as seen on this box.

The decoration on this box is mainly silk thread in a variety of embroidery stitches but the maker has also included a small piece of crystal to represent a mirror.

The lady's necklace is made from seed pearls.

The maker had probably never seen many of the animals she pictured, which explains how charmingly odd they look: on the lower panel, a lion and leopard, emblematic of courage and fidelity, are seated beneath an oak tree in the English country landscape.

The fashion for small needlework pictures like this lasted only a few decades in the seventeenth century.

They first became popular in the reign of Charles I, then flourished during the English Civil War and the restoration of Charles II.

By the end of the seventeenth century, they were no longer made.

Philippa Tinsley, Senior Curator, Museums Worcestershire

Malvern Gazette:

3. The Commandery Cannon

The Commandery is filled with many lifetimes of incredible stories, but the objects but contains also have many tales to tell.

The 17th century cannon is one such object and its significance and provenance cannot help but captivate our visitors.

The cannon was cast in Brussles by Johann Seehof in 1628 for Count Henry de Bergh.

It was cast in solid bronze using the same techniques that would be employed in bell making and would have originally been part of a pair.

It is likely that the pair were constructed to be used in the Thirty Years' War that raged through central Europe between 1618 and 1648.

The gun is known as a Saker and like all cannons of this period, it derives its name from a bird of prey, the Arabic Saker falcon.

A cannon such as this would have been a prized piece of equipment.

In the right hands the Saker could fire a 5-6lb ball with a calibre of around 3.25 inches and damage structures a mile away.

It could also be used to wreak havoc as an anti-personnel weapon by firing canister shot, contemporarily known as “hail shot” into tightly packed formations of men on the battlefield.

The cannon is approximately one foot shorter than standard length and may have been shortened for ease of transportation.

It is no wonder that such an asset was acquired by the Royalist Army during the English Civil War.

It was transported to England by Charles II as he attempted to retake the throne from The Parliamentarian Army of Oliver Cromwell at the final battle at Worcester in 1651.

During the Battle of Worcester the Commandery became the Royalist Headquarters and the Saker was deployed either at Powick, Castle Mound or Fort Royal Hill, situated directly behind the Commandery.

Sakers were primarily used in a fixed role, either in a siege against a city or from a consolidated defensive position such as Fort Royal.

Too heavy to be a part of a field army, lighter guns were preferred due to their mobility.

Worcester was the last place that our cannon was used in anger and over 350 years later, it remains here, as part of the Museum Collection.

A weapon of war, expertly designed with a single purpose it now sits silently in The Commandery, which also witnessed the devastation and loss of life of 1651.

Just like the Commandery, it is a beautiful asset to be treasured and passed on to future generations, but carries an unforgettable reminder of our nation’s bloody and war-torn past.

By Alex Bear & David Nash, The Commandery

Malvern Gazette:

4. Anglo-Viking Gold Ring

In 1996 a metal detectorist discovered a richly decorated gold ring near a stream in Kyre Park, Tenbury Wells.

The ring was examined at the British Museum and identified as an Anglo-Scandinavian ring that was most probably manufactured in the 10th century.

This was an incredibly significant find.

The ring was the first recorded discovery of high status jewellery from this period, from a secure findspot, in Worcestershire and the first complete object found in the county to show elements of Viking influence.

Three stamps have been used to decorate the entire surface; a horseshoe stamp, a small ring and a triangular punch.

The overall effect is of a procession of stylised beasts viewed from above.

It is thought that this style of decoration places the manufacture of the ring during a period of Viking raids and settlement in the British Isles in the ninth and tenth centuries.

Interestingly, however, the animal mask decoration and the use of a broad gold band also suggest strong elements of native Anglo Saxon taste making this ring something of a hybrid of Scandinavian Viking and local Anglo Saxon style.

The ring is a real rarity and its position of the banks of Kyre Brook, a tributary of the Teme, is fascinating considering the strategic importance of the Welsh borders and the fortification of Bridgnorth by the Great Viking Army in 896.

Deborah Fox, Curator of Archaeology and Natural History, Museums Worcestershire

Malvern Gazette:

5. Nature Morte aux Fruits by Juan Gris

This signed lithograph print is an unexpected inclusion in Worcester's art collection, but a real treasure.

It first came into the collection as part of the Print Loan scheme before moving to the main collection; Museums Worcestershire has an extensive set of historical items that are borrowed by schools and other learning organisations to help bring the past to life.

Juan Gris was, along with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, a leading artist of the Cubist art movement.

Gris was born in Madrid, but moved to Paris as a young man.

The Paris art world at the beginning of the twentieth century was an exciting melting pot of new ideas and Gris' friends and fellow artists included Matisse, Leger and Modigliani as well as Picasso.

Gris died in 1927 aged just 40, perhaps meaning his work is slightly less known than his peers.

Nature Morte aux Fruits is a perfect example of Gris' work with its flatness, its strong architectural shapes and its harmonious colour palate including a very typical red table cloth.

The inclusion of the pears within the still life makes it an interesting comparison to other depictions of pears, some a lot more local, in the Worcester art collection.

Philippa Tinsley, Senior Curator, Museums Worcestershire

Malvern Gazette:

6. Worcester Tunnel Junction

In the 1860s Worcester Tunnel Junction sat at the north of a triangle of Shrub Hill Junction in the east and Rainbow Hill Junction in the west that together connected the three lines that served the city.

In 1973 Shrub Hill Junction and Rainbow Hill junction were removed and Worcester Tunnel Junction became the main junction connecting Worcester to rest of the country.

This painting by William Roy Putt shows the view of Worcester Tunnel Junction from Tunnel Hill and highlights the complex geometry of train lines and signals that make this system work.

With plans underway for a new Worcester Parkway Station that will change the face of Worcester's railway lines, this painting becomes an interesting document of the city's urban landscape.

Artworks like this capturing the natural and industrial sights of the city are a key focus in the Worcester City Museum fine art collection and the exhibitions the museum curates.

Emalee Beddoes, Assistant Curator Museums Worcestershire

Malvern Gazette:

7. Toy train

Worcestershire County Museum at Hartlebury Castle first opened its doors to the public on 6 May, 1966.

The core of the Museum's collection was generously donated to the county council in the early 1960s by James and Alice Parker of Tickenhill Manor, near Bewdley.

The original collection, known as the Tickenhill Collection, comprised of many domestic and social history items, exploring themes of home-life and childhood, including this tin-plate toy train which dates from around 1875.

Children's models and toys have long reflected the society in which we live and the evolution of the railways in the 19th century inspired the huge popularity of toy trains.

These were the first type of modern transport to be reproduced as toys and began as wooden pull-along trains during the 1840s, before being replaced by tin-plate locomotives in the 1870s, which were often clockwork or steam-powered.

To take a nostalgic look at toys and games from times gone by visit the Childhood Treasures display in the County Museum at Hartlebury and you can also see a working O gauge model train set in the Springs, Spas and Holidays gallery at the museum.

Rachel Robinson, Manager of the County Museum at Hartlebury

Malvern Gazette:

8. Saintonge pitcher beneath the Giffard Hotel

In 1965 construction work was under way in Worcester city centre on the building which would become the Giffard Hotel (now the Travelodge).

Henry Sandon, who would in later years become well known for his work on BBC's Antiques Roadshow, was then a member of the Worcester City Archaeological Research Group and kept an archaeological watching brief on the construction work in order to monitor the area for any archaeological discoveries that might be unearthed.

The area known as Cathedral Plaza was once part of the hustle and bustle of the Roman, Anglo Saxon, and later, the medieval city.

This pitcher was imported to Worcester in the thirteenth or fourteenth century from the Saintonge region in south-west France.

The pot's fabric is a hard, fine, whitish ware with a yellow tone to the outside and a green glaze to the upper part of the body of the pot.

The form or shape of the pot, with its three strap handles, belongs to a type that endured for centuries.

It's most likely use was to hold wine. At the time of its discovery, it generated excitement, being one of only seven known examples in Britain.

It was found in a vast number of small pieces in one of two wells which were excavated under the direction of Philip Barker, the then lecturer in extra-mural activities at the University of Birmingham, and a pivotal figure in the development of archaeology in Worcester.

The pitcher is not only fascinating in the story it tells of a wealth that could afford such imported ware in the late thirteenth century in our city but also of the feat of conservation undertaken by staff at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.

The tiny sherds of pottery from Well 2 were painstakingly reconstructed into a complete pottery vessel that is still a favourite whenever it is displayed or encountered on store tours.

It is an object that is examined and talked about as much for its conservation as its archaeological value.

Deborah Fox, Curator of Archaeology and Natural History Museums Worcestershire

Malvern Gazette:

9. Roman Mosaic

This mosaic from the Roman villa at Bays Meadow in Droitwich and now in the Worcestershire County museum collection was excavated in 1920.

The design is of a sixteen-pointed star in six colours: white, khaki, grey-green, pale blue-grey, yellow and red.

The complete mosaic is thought to have been around 2½ metres square and would have been surrounded by coarse red tiles.

The pieces of the mosaic (called tesserae) are each about 12mm in size.

The Worcester City museum collection includes another mosaic from the Bays Meadow villa which is currently on loan to the Droitwich Heritage Centre.

This mosaic was discovered by Jabez Allies, an important local historian, in 1847 during the construction of the railway.

Other fragments of mosaic are also known to have been found at the Roman site in Droitwich and to the north the remains of a mosaic workers hut was discovered which suggests that these mosaics were constructed in situ.

Deborah Fox, Curator of Archaeology, Museums Worcestershire

Malvern Gazette:

10. Anti-Gas Ointment

In the late 1930s, as the conflict of the Second World War started brewing, it was expected that gas would be used as a weapon against the British as it had been during the First World War.

Much work was put in before war broke out to equip both the armed forces and civilians with suitable counter-measures to protect against the horrific effects.

Jars of anti-gas ointment went on general sale in grocery shops and chemists.

The ointment was intended for use to protect the skin against mustard or liquid blister gas.

It could be applied either as a thin film in advance to prevent gas from damaging the skin surface and flesh, or as a counter-acting remedy after contamination.

It relies upon a strong alkaline content to neutralise the gas residue.

County Perfumery Company Ltd was a firm that made and sold perfumes and toiletries and in the early 20th century was best known for manufacturing Brylcreem.

Philippa Tinsley, Senior Curator, Museums Worcestershire