The treasures and artefacts that help tell city’s ‘ remarkable’ story
A GLIMPSE of the huge range of antiques, art, collectables, and historical artefacts in Sheffield has been revealed in a new report.
The city has 750,000 items in several collections, which have been catalogued by the council as part of its annual statement of accounts.
Museums Sheffield, which cares for the items, said displays across museums and galleries celebrated the city’s collections of art, human history and natural science. Kirstie Hamilton, director of programmes at Museums Sheffield, said: “An important part of our work is researching the collections to understand what they tell us about where we’ve come from and the world we live in, and also conserving and safeguarding them to ensure they can continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.
“We’re very much looking forward to reuniting the city’s museums collections next year, when we join together with Sheffield
Industrial Museums Trust to form a new museums trust to tell Sheffield’s remarkable story.”
The Metalwork Collection includes 13,000 items and the most extensive grouping of finished Sheffield made cutlery, flatware and hollowware in existence. It has national significance and is described as “a powerful illustration of the city’s world leadership in metalwork design, production and innovation”.
The Decorative Art Collection includes 3,000 examples of art, craft and design, British ceramics, glass, horology and Chinese carved ivories. And the Visual Art Collection comprises over 6,000 items of British and European Art dating from the 1500s to the present.
The most significant area is the Modern British collection which includes key acquisitions by artists including Marc Quinn, Sam Taylor- Johnson, Hew Locke, Sutapa Biswas and Katerina Seda.
Family and communities are at the heart of the Social History Collection with 25,000 objects including ephemera, personalia, costume, domestic items, furniture, and 1,500 watercolours, drawings, prints and oil paintings documenting the changing city.
The Coins, Medals and Token Collection numbers around 8,000 items and owe their origin to the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society. It dates from Roman and Greek pieces to 20th century coins. Japanese and Indo- Iranian swords, shields and helmets alongside 200 guns from the late 1600s onwards are part of the Arms and Armour Collection.
The Archaeology Collection is of regional and national importance with material dating from prehistory to the 20th century and includes the Anglo Saxon Benty Grange Helmet.
And the Natural Sciences section has extensive data of collectors, field recording and meteorology with over 60,000 biological and geological records.
We’re looking forward to reuniting the museums collections next year. Kirstie Hamilton, director of programmes at Museums Sheffield.