Every object tells a story

This 8 foot, 6 inch long fish was caught in the River Wye in 1846.  It made a valiant fight of its capture and twice knocked the fisherman, James Postans, down in the process.  It weighed 182 pounds when landed, despite having lost a lot of blood during the struggle.  It was displayed at a local fishmongers for "a penny a look" before being stuffed for posterity.

It was rumoured that Queen Anne, who ruled from 1702 to 1714, wore this hat on a visit to the Foley Estate, at Stoke Edith.  It is an intricate plaited cane object, one of only three in the world and was made between 1680 and 1710.

When the handle of this ceramic jug was broken, it was replaced with an oil can handle.  Today we live in a disposable society, but in the past it would have been wasteful to discard damaged items and much skill, imagination and ingenuity was employed to repair things, as this jug tells us.

This is a 2nd or 3rd Century Roman sword, which was found in the mud of the River Lugg by a man who was walking his dog.  Was this spatha sword a ritual offering to the gods or an attempt to destroy the evidence of the death of a Roman soldier?

This portrait of Joyce Andrews of Felton was painted in 1660, but we do not know who the artist was.  The writing on the picture tells us that this woman died at the age of 114 and mentions that she gave birth to a girl at the age of 60!  Is the picture to be believed, or is it an elaboration of the truth?

This cannon ball was found lodged in Hereford city wall, where it had probably been since the Civil War.  It remained in place until 2003, when it suddenly disappeared.  Thankfully it was soon discovered by traffic wardens in a nearby car park.

The Botanists by Joseph Southall (1861 to 1944).  A study of two fashionable women in the 1920s, enjoying a view of the Fowey Estuary in Cornwall.  Southall was experimenting with the use of egg yolk in mixing his paint colours, which gives an unusual quality to the picture.  It has a rather powdery matt finish.

This is a late Saxon strap mount from between 1000 and 1200 AD.  A metal detector found this enamel mount.  It demonstrates a superb level of craft skill.  Cast in copper alloy, decorated with enamel and a silver alloy, it may have been used on a portable shrine or similar casket.  How did it come to be dropped and who was carrying such a superb piece of craftsmanship?

This object demonstrates the museum's active collecting policy.  This sign was acquired in 1998 when the shop closed down after the arrival of Waterstones in Hereford.  The sign was hung outside the shop every morning for over twenty years.  The Hereford Bookshop used to be in Church Street.

This photograph from the museum collection shows the Austrian hunter called Fritz Schindler, who was renowned for his spotless white breeches and gleaming boots, for his daring and his womanising!  He was killed in 1912 by a lion, whilst he was assisting in the filming of the lion charging at the camera.  How did his photograph end up in Herefordshire?  Was it the memento of one of his many female friends?!

This object remains a mystery.  Cast in bronze during the Roman period, it was found at Kenchester, the Roman town of Magnis, not far from Hereford.  There have been many theories about what the dodecahedron was used for, but we will never know for sure.  Was it a weapon, and astronomer's instrument, for mathematical calculations, or just a decorative object?  What do you think?

This is a Jurassic ammonite, which is 140 million years old.  Ammonites like this appear in the legend of the founding of Whitby Abbey in the 7th Century.  The snakes driven off the site fell over a cliff to the shore and turned to stone!