The Collections

Japan pattern tea cup, part of a breakfast service that belonged to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805). The cup is painted in colours and gilt with a floral motif and single gold line inside. The outside is decorated with panels of…

Japan pattern saucer, part of a breakfast service that belonged to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805). The saucer is painted in colours and gilt. The centre is decorated with a basket of flowers, and there are three panels of flowers on…

A small brownish-red stoneware teapot, perforated inside and with a loop handle. It has a later silver spout and a silver lid with a wooden knop, which was probably added in the early 18th century to replace broken parts. The…

Chinese export porcelain bowl which belonged to Captain James Cook (1728-1779) and his wife Elizabeth. The outside is painted with peonies and pomegranites in a garden. Inside the rim is a floral border and there is a citron flower in…

Chinese export mug which belonged to Captain James Cook (1728-1779) and his wife Elizabeth. The shape imitates that of an English silver tankard of about 1745. It is painted with a lady and boy in a garden and peonies. On…

Oil painting (unframed) A painting of the Cutty Sark, the most famous - and the last survivor - of the tea-clippers. These were vessels built to carry the annual tea crop back from India and China in the late 19th…

Silver teapot engraved with the initials of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson (1758-1805). Large oval teapot with a hinged lid with a wooden knop and a scrolled wooden handle. There are engraved bands of scrolling foliage around the body of the teapot,…

Lead cloth or 'bag seal' (from its shape) with merchant's mark of the East India Company. The design on the reverse shows a St George cross with the English shield of arms (the three lions of England diagonally impaled with…