25 Feb 2018
Part III: 50 interesting objects
Finger mats
There are many intriguing and eye-catching artefacts in our collections.
1. Propeller
Featured Place:
Culzean Castle
A propeller from a bi-plane that brought down a Zeppelin near London in 1916
2. Plate warmer
Featured Place:
The Georgian House
A ‘japanned’ plate warmer, made by Pontypool in Wales around 1800
3. Field Marshal John portrait
Featured Place:
Newhailes
A portrait of Field Marshal John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, painted by Allan Ramsay
4. Finger mats
Featured Place:
The Hill House
A set of eight hand-painted finger mats, to be placed under finger bowls
5. Standard lamp
Featured Place:
The Hill House
A standard lamp from 1905 designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh
6. Easy armchair
An easy armchair, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh around 1905
7. Centre table
A centre table by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, inlaid with mother-of-pearl
8. Burns’s first book
Featured Place:
Robert Burns Birthplace Museum
A 1786 copy of ‘Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’
9. Burns manuscript
Featured Place:
Robert Burns Birthplace Museum
A fragment of a manuscript for Burns’s ’Auld Lang Syne’
10. Playing cards
Featured Place:
Newhailes
A deck of cards (with rules) for the 1930s whist-style game ‘Striptease’.