© Paul Raeside

Golden Roman ring

The Vyne, Hampshire

Placed for years within a glass-topped cabinet, beside a little type-written note, this solid gold ring might have caught the eye of specialists – but for most it might warrant no more than an admiring glance.

Made in the fourth or fifth century, with its chunky bezel mounted on a faceted 10-sided hoop, it is engraved with a compelling, if primitive profile of Venus. This goddess is no beauty, with her exaggerated nose, spiky headdress and one oversized eye.

The ring was discovered in the late 18th century by a farmer at the remains of the nearby Roman town of Silchester.

No one knows quite how the ring came to The Vyne, but its story did not stop there. By an extraordinary coincidence, just a couple of decades after its discovery, a Roman lead tablet bearing an inscription about this very ring was found at a temple site at Lydney in Gloucestershire. It was engraved with a curse imprecating woe upon the person who had stolen the ring.

The original lead tablet is now at Lydney; but alongside this ring in the little cabinet is a replica, so the two can be admired together.

By 1928 the great archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler was at work excavating the rich finds at Lydney where he was told the tale of the two finds.

And, so some conjecture, it is almost certain that he would have passed this exciting story to another who was advisor to finds at Lydney – an expert in early English – an Oxford don, named Tolkien.

A ring – and a curse. Enough to make anyone wonder: could this be the ring that inspired an iconic tale, my precious? We, of course, couldn’t possibly comment...

© NTPL / John Hammond / Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

George Bernard Shaw’s Oscar

Shaw’s Corner, Hertfordshire

This Oscar, the only one in our collections, was awarded to the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw for best screenplay for the 1938 film ‘Pygmalion’ starring Leslie Howard, which he adapted from his play of the same name. Shaw’s screenplay was later translated into the highly successful musical ‘My Fair Lady’, which itself cleaned up at the 1964 Academy Awards. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Rex Harrison with his portrayal of Henry Higgins, or ‘Enry ‘Iggins as Eliza Dolittle would say.

© NTPL / Bill Batten

The Pope’s Cabinet

Stourhead, Wiltshire

Story has it that this monumental Florentine cabinet once belonged to Pope Sixtus V, who was Pope from 1585 to 1590. In fact the cabinet was probably made in the mid-17th century but Henry Hoare II believed the provenance and purchased it in Rome for his country house, Stourhead.

The cabinet’s frame of ebony and gilt bronze only serves to show off the glistening blues, reds, yellows and greens of the spectacular and costly pitre dure (meaning ‘hard stones’) inlay. Such cabinets were intended to contain collections of gems, cameos and other precious objects. This year, you can watch top conservator, Colin Piper, as he carries out complex conservation work to the cabinet in situ at the house.

© NTPL / Dennis Gilbert

Ernö Goldfinger’s Modernist child’s alphabet set

2 Willow Road, London

M is for Modernism with this plyboard alphabet designed by the Modernist architect Ernö Goldfinger for toymakers and progressive educationalists Paul and Marjorie Abbatt. This alphabet featured prominently on the Abbatts’ display at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition. Goldfinger devised it in the best Modernist fashion, choosing a sans-serif typeface for the letters. The notion that children could learn through play was a radical one at the time.

© NTPL / Angelo Hornak

'Bacino di San Marco, Venice', c1725-6; by Canaletto (1697-1768)

Upton House, Warwickshire

Save your airfare: there’s no need to visit Venice when this early picture by Canaletto offers a sweeping panorama of its main stage, the Venetian waterfront. The painting gives such an extensive view that Canaletto probably used a camera obscura (a box containing lenses which enabled the artist to project an image of the view on to paper). The painting is Upton’s ‘Picture in Focus’ for 2006. Visit it in the newly opened Sitting Room, where you can sit, pick up a book and brush up on your Canaletto knowledge.

© National Trust

Dutch model sailing ship

Chartwell, Kent

This silver model sailing ship can be found at Chartwell, the family home of Sir Winston Churchill. For the last 20 years of his life, Churchill held a remarkable, worldwide reputation and was showered with gifts of gratitude from world leaders through to schoolchildren. Churchill enjoyed a five day visit to the Netherlands in May 1946 at the invitation of Queen Wilhelmina. The ship was given to Sir Winston 'as a token of their gratitude to the great upholder of liberty', by the Gold and Silversmiths of the Netherlands.

© NTPL / Edward Chambré Hardman

‘The Copse’ by E Chambré Hardman

Mr Hardman’s Photographic Studio, Liverpool

From his cluttered Liverpool home and studio, photographer E Chambré Hardman produced extraordinary images of life in the last century. Hardman ran a successful portrait studio, but his abiding passion was for landscape photography.

‘The Copse’ is one of the high points of Hardman’s travels round Britain to capture the ‘open, spacious view of our own homeland’. Hardly any of Hardman’s photographs were exhibited during his lifetime, and in typical unassuming fashion he described his work simply as ‘the making of pictures’.

© NTPL / John Hammond

The Molyneux Globe

Petworth House, West Sussex

Here there be sea-monsters. This terrestrial globe, engraved with fanciful sea-beasts, was made in 1592 during the age of discovery when European adventurers sailed the seas in search of new lands. Its maker, Emery Molyneux, sailed on voyages of exploration with Sir Francis Drake - the globe charts some of his voyages - and was a friend of Sir Walter Raleigh. Molyneux’s globes were hailed at the time as the ‘first soe published in Christendome’ intended for ‘Scholars, Gentrye and Marriners’. The Molyneux Globe is the earliest such English globe in existence.

© NTPL / Jacqui Hurst

Beetle wing embroidered dress

Springhill Costume Collection, Co Londonderry

As part of the 'Ages of Elegance' exhibition, this beetle wing embroidered dress from 1856 forms part of the Springhill costume collection. It is decorated with silver gilt thread and nearly 1,000 Indian jewel beetle wings.

© NTPL / Jacqui Hurst

Repairing the broken wings of the dress was enough to test the patience of our textile conservators. Each broken wing had to be glued together with a tiny piece of Japanese paper soaked in special glue before being returned to the dress. ‘You only got about 30 seconds before it dried, so you really had to concentrate’ said conservator Deborah Mecklenburgh.

© National Trust

Life-size model of Tom Thumb

Arlington Court, Devon

Charles S Stratton was only five years old when he was plucked for stardom by the American showman, PT Barnum. Barnum taught the tiny child to sing and dance and brought him to New York as his prize ‘exhibit’, General Tom Thumb. As Tom Thumb, Stratton toured the whole world.

This life-sized model wears one of his outfits, and stands beside the Miniature Road Coach made for him during his visit to England in 1865. Other Tom Thumb memorabilia on display includes a miniature fan and a signed photo of his wedding to Miss Minnie Warren in 1864. Thumb died in 1883 having reached the grand age of 45 and the grand height of 78.7cm.

© NTPL / Andreas von Einsiedel

Hammond House doll's house

Wallington, Northumberland

Not just a doll’s house but a mansion, all the mod-cons, including electric lighting, a lift and running water, have been built in to this grand residence for dolls. Hammond House boasts 36 beautifully decorated rooms in miniature complete with original furniture, wallpaper and carpets. Living in this lap of luxury are 77 china faced dolls: a master, mistress, their large family and a full serving staff. Hammond House is one of a collection of doll's houses at Wallington.

© NTPL / Peter Aprahamian

The Ship Chandelier

Mount Stewart, Co Down

In a house packed with playful and unusual objects, this cut-glass chandelier stands out. The galleon was meant to look like a spectral ship, glinting on the waters of nearby Strangford Lough. It was bought by Lady Londonderry, wife of the 7th Marquess, in the 1930s at a charity sale: it had been donated by the American heiress Emerald Cunard – a great friend of Wallis Simpson.