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25 Feb 2018

Part III: 50 interesting objects

A series of 8 lace finger mats are displayed. Each contains a hand-painted black and white bird illustration.
Finger mats
There are many intriguing and eye-catching artefacts in our collections.

1. Playing cards

Featured Place: Newhailes
A deck of cards (with rules) for the 1930s whist-style game ‘Striptease’.

2. Propeller

Featured Place: Culzean Castle
A wooden propeller from a bi-plane is fixed to a ceiling, with a gold chain hanging from the fixture. One of the blades has an inscription carved upon it.
A propeller from a bi-plane that brought down a Zeppelin near London in 1916

3. Plate warmer

A large metal container stands on 4 legs. It has a door that opens at the front, with a carving of a traditional Japanese scene.
A ‘japanned’ plate warmer, made by Pontypool in Wales around 1800

4. Field Marshal John portrait

Featured Place: Newhailes
A large portrait of a man dressed in military uniform, with a long red coat. He holds a long sheathed sword in his left hand, and wears a Georgian-style white wig.
A portrait of Field Marshal John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, painted by Allan Ramsay

5. Finger mats

Featured Place: The Hill House
A series of 8 lace finger mats are displayed. Each contains a hand-painted black and white bird illustration.
A set of eight hand-painted finger mats, to be placed under finger bowls

6. Standard lamp

Featured Place: The Hill House
A standard lamp designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It has a wooden stem, and the shade features the Mackintosh rose design.
A standard lamp from 1905 designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

7. Easy armchair

Featured Place: The Hill House
An easy armchair, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It has a dark wooden frame, with white linen-style padded sections.
An easy armchair, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh around 1905

8. Centre table

Featured Place: The Hill House
A wooden centre table designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The top is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and covered by a glass square. The base is made up of a grid of wooden squares.
A centre table by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, inlaid with mother-of-pearl

9. Burns’s first published book

Featured Place: Robert Burns Birthplace Museum
A 1786 copy of Robert Burns’s ‘Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’ is displayed open at the page for ‘To a Mouse’.
A 1786 copy of ‘Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’

10. Burns manuscript

Featured Place: Robert Burns Birthplace Museum
A fragment of a manuscript for Burns’s ’Auld Lang Syne’, written in his handwriting. The bottom right corner has been torn.
A fragment of a manuscript for Burns’s ’Auld Lang Syne’

What we do: Collections

Find out more about how we care for the very wide range of collections items in over 50 of our properties.

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Read next

Part I: 50 interesting objects

Explore part I of our 50 interesting objects.

A very elaborate and ornate dressing case, filled with ceramic pots and gilt slim cases. Many of the lids are encrusted with red jewels.

Part II: 50 interesting objects

Explore part II of our 50 interesting objects.

Part IV: 50 interesting objects

Explore Part IV of our 50 interesting objects.

Part V: 50 interesting objects

Explore Part V of our 50 interesting objects.

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