Lincolnshire

Men of 1st/7th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, digging in with entrenching tools during training at Horncastle, 15 April 1942.

Object TypeIn the 100 years following the Protestant Reformation of the mid-16th century, few stained-glass windows with images of people were produced for English churches. The medium was used almost solely for heraldic panels. These were commissioned by wealthy individuals to decorate their residences and to advertise their associations with the religious foundations they had patronised. Materials & MakingBy the 16th century true stained glass played a diminishing part in the production of coats of arms. Instead, white glass was painted with coloured enamel pigments. This highly-skilled work fell chiefly to Dutch and German immigrant artists. This panel is made predominantly of clear glass which has been painted with successive layers of brown enamel. The brown enamel has been scraped away in places to create white highlights. Silver stain, which turns yellow on firing, has also been used. The tones achieved - ranging from pale lemon to deep amber - vary according to the number of coats applied. This layering technique brings a striking three-dimensional quality to the border ornament.ProvenanceThe shield bears the arms of the Pigot family, who in the 16th century lived at Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire. Whilst the provenance of this panel is uncertain, similar stained-glass panels exist in the mid-18th-century church of St Lawrence in Mereworth, Kent. Built in the Palladian style by John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, St Lawrence was filled with old figural windows dating from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Object TypeWhen Elizabeth I issued an important document it was accompanied by a wax tablet bearing the impression of her Great Seal. The seal was the size of a saucer and embossed on both sides. It was a highly symbolic appendage and far removed from any ordinary security seal. This impression is taken from the Queen's second Great Seal, designed by Nicholas Hilliard. The document relates to land and property in Lincolnshire.Subjects DepictedThe impression shows the monarch enthroned, and on the reverse, riding on horseback. This was the standard format for Tudor Great Seals. However, this one differs from earlier examples in the many allegorical motifs incorporated in the design: the orb and sceptre, the Tudor roses and the hands reaching down from the heavens are all supposed to stress Elizabeth's divine rule over England. TimeThis seal was commissioned in 1584. It replaced another version in use since the Queen's accession to the throne 25 years earlier. The 1580s were difficult years for Elizabeth and the timing of this commission is historically significant: as she entered a childless middle-age amidst conflicts with Spain, it was hoped that powerful new imagery such as this might bolster her flagging popularity.

Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895) was a celebrated Parisian couture dressmaker. He was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, and started working at the age of 12 in a draper's shop in London. Eight years later he moved to Paris, where he opened his own fashion house in 1858. He was soon patronised by the Empress Eugenie and her influence was instrumental to his success. His clothes, admired for their elegance and fine workmanship, became an important symbol of social and financial advancement. This dress was worn by Princess Nicholas of Greece. Her grandson, the Duke of Kent, gave it to Sir Cecil Beaton, who was then collecting fashionable dress for his 1971 exhibition, Fashion: An Anthology. As with other evening gowns of the period, its original trimmings were very delicate and have been lost. The petticoat and neck edging have been carefully reconstructed from old photographs of Worth designs.

This poster was first issued by the Great Northern Railway in 1908. It was then reissued by London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) about 1925. John Hassall (1868-1948) was a contemporary of Dudley Hardy (1867-1922) and produced many posters for the clients of the printers David Allen & Sons. His greatest strength was his humour, which made his images highly popular both then and now. The image of the fisherman, first issued by the Great Northern Railway in 1908, and from 1925 repeatedly used by the LNER, still promotes the Lincolnshire town of Skegness today.

This paper was designed to imitate a 'print room'. This was a room decorated with prints that had been pasted on to the walls, with the addition of printed paper frames and borders. It was intended to give the impression of a room hung with framed pictures. Designing and installing a print room was a fashionable hobby for the wealthy in the 1760s and 1770s. Using a wallpaper with a 'print room' design was a cheaper way of achieving the same effect. This is one of several print room papers from Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire; it was hung as part of the major redecoration of the house undertaken by Sir John Hussey Delaval around 1760.

In the 1750s and 1760s there was a fashion for print rooms. These were rooms decorated with prints that had been cut out and pasted directly onto the walls, and embellished with printed paper frames, swags and ribbons. In due course wallpapers were produced that emulated the effect of a print room. This paper comes from Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire, and was used in the fashionable redecoration of the house undertaken by Sir John Hussey Delaval around 1760. A blue-ground version of the same pattern also survives. Another fine 'print room' paper in the Museum's collection is E.474-1914.

Frederick Richard Lee (1798-1879) entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1818 after retiring from the army on the grounds of ill-health. During his lifetime he exhibited 171 landscapes at the Royal Academy, 131 at the British Institute and 24 at the Society of British Artists. He mainly painted views of Devon, which was where he was born, but also elsewhere in England, Wales and Scotland. This particular painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836 and is possibly of the Lincolnshire coast.

Chests were the earliest form of storage and could easily be carried from place to place. They were used for storing clothes, linen, documents or money and often had locks for security, as in this case. This example came from a farmhouse in Stamford, Lincolnshire. It is constructed of six boards, one for each of the sides, bottom and top. The lid is not original.

Thomas Morris's Sheep Show at Barton-on-Humber, LincolnshireThomas Weaver1810Oil on canvassupport: 1028 x 1286 mmBequeathed by Mrs F. Ambrose Clark through the British Sporting Art Trust 1982

Roman Canal, LincolnshirePeter De Wintcirca 1840Watercolour on papersupport: 238 x 549 mmBequeathed by John Henderson 1879

from Picturesque Views in England and Wales, Louth, LincolnshireJoseph Mallord William Turner1829Intaglio print on paperimage: 166 x 240 mmPurchased 1986

A fossil ammonite from the Upper Jurassic, Kimmeridge clay, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire. An ammonite has a coiled, chambered shell and is an extinct mollusc.

Object details of a bronze statuette of the Roman god of war from Roman Britain and found in Lincolnshire

This unusual gold brooch was found by someone using a metal detector in Lincolnshire. The complicated shape of the head of the brooch gives the impres...

Farmers gather to discuss the price and quality of animals for sale at the cattle market, Boston, Lincolnshire.

Boston, Lincolnshire, engraved by T. JeavonsJoseph Mallord William Turnerpublished 1835Engraving on paperTransferred from the British Museum 1988

Stamford, Lincolnshire, engraved by W. MillerJoseph Mallord William Turnerpublished 1830Engraving on paperTransferred from the British Museum 1988

Photographs of medieval architecture by Frederick Evans (1853-1943) were admired both by his fellows in the English photographic group known as the Brotherhood of the Linked Ring and by the avant-garde circle associated with Alfred Steiglitz and his magazine Camera Work in New York. For much of the 20th century, photography was transmitted not in the form of silver or platinum-based prints but in ink, and although Evans was a masterly printer of platinum photographs, this is a photogravure. It is one of a group by the Swan Electric Engraving Co., produced in 1900 from a photograph taken in 1895.

Lincoln Cathedral from the South-WestJoseph Mallord William Turner1794Pencil on papersupport: 217 x 275 mmAccepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856