Date: 43–410 AD

English Heritage Property: Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent

Can you spot the cat pawprints in this Roman tile? 

The Romans made ceramic tiles like this one to create roofs on buildings like Lullingstone Roman Villa. They shaped the clay and dried the tiles in the sun. During this drying stage,  animals and children would sometimes walk across the wet tiles, leaving their pawprints and footprints behind. The size of the pawprints here suggest that a kitten made them. You can also see a maker's mark on this tile where the craftsman who made the tile deliberately ran their finger across the clay while it was still damp. Other tiles at Lullingstone show dog paw prints and ox hoof prints. 

You can also view a 3D model of this object on Sketchfab.

Date: 2nd–3rd Century AD

English Heritage Property: Corbridge Roman Town, Northumberland

Lions were often used to decorate tomb monuments in Roman Britain and were important symbols in burials. However, this lion statue was found at Corbridge within the grounds of a private property.

It seems like the statue may have been recycled or taken from a mason's stock of ready-made statues and adapted. Its teeth were removed and the lion's mouth was used as a spout for a large fountain. 

You can also view a 3D model of the Corbridge Lion on Sketchfab.

Date: 1815

English Heritage Property: Apsley House, London

This is a standard (military flag) of the Garde Nationale in France. It's made of silk and embroidered with a large 'N', symbols including bees and the words 'Champ de Mai' (Field of May). This was a large meeting that Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, called in May 1815 to secure his grip on power after escaping exile on the island of Elba.

In the early 1800s, Bonaparte needed to choose a symbol that would represent him and and the dynasty he was establishing. He wanted to avoid symbols like the fleur-de-lys which had been linked with the French royal family. Golden bees were found in Tournai on the tomb of Childeric I who founded the Merivingian dynasty in the fifth century. He was the father of Clovis I, the first king of the Franks, who united all Frankish tribes in the 500s. Although it was thought that the Childeric bee was too small and didn't have enough detail to be used as a powerful symbol, Napoleon dismissed his adviser's suggestion of a hive and used bees to symbolise his status as Emperor of France. Bees represent immortality (living forever) and resurrection (coming back to life). They are also known to be hard workers.

Date: late 19th–early 20th century

English Heritage Property: Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, Yorkshire

The central bird in this display at Brodsworth Hall is a North American passenger pigeon, also known as a wild pigeon. Taxidermy displays like this one were popular as a way of studying natural history during the 1800s.

Male passenger pigeons were between 390–410mm long while females were 380–400mm long. These pigeons were once one of the most common birds in North America and their flocks included millions of birds. When the pigeons migrated together, there were so many birds that they filled the sky, blocking out the sun.

Although there were originally millions of passenger pigeons, they only bred once a year and females only laid a single egg. They were first hunted by Native Americans but after the arrival of Europeans in North America the pigeons were hunted in greater and greater numbers as a cheap source of food. Deforestation also destroyed their habitat. The species couldn’t survive this heavy exploitation and by the early 1900s there were few passenger pigeons left.

In 1914 the last passenger pigeon, called Martha, died at a zoo in Cincinnati in Ohio, USA. 

Date: 1797

English Heritage Property: Kenwood, London

This painting by Julius Caesar Ibbetson shows three English long-horned cattle in front of the dairy buildings at the Earl of Mansfield's home on Hampstead Heath. The herd provided milk with a high fat content which could be used to make cream and cheese. 

English Longhorns were originally from areas in northern England, including Lancashire, Westmorland and Yorkshire. They were specially bred during the 1700s by Robert Bakewell of Dishley in Leicestershire using his method of selective breeding. His success led the English longhorn to become the main cattle breed in England for a short time. 

Date: c.1st–2nd century

English Heritage Property: Wroxeter Roman City, Shropshire

Image © Historic England Archive

Bulls appeared in lots of different types of art from the Bronze Age to the Roman period. They were mainly a symbol of fertility, but people also admired their strength and warlike nature. Cattle were a very important part of life in the past. Places like Wroxeter relied on grazing cattle as a source of food as well as a valuable thing to trade.

This mount has come off a larger object, probably a bucket used for serving alcoholic drinks like beer or mead on special occasions. People would fill their individual cups from a larger vessel which was decorated with significant images and symbols. During the Iron Age, images of bulls were included on vessels used for serving and drinking from. They seem to have been linked with hospitality and this link continued into the Romano-British period.

Date: c.1730

English Heritage Property: Marble Hill, Twickenham

This table is one of a set of four pier tables made for the Great Room at Marble Hill in Twickenham, London. It is made of carved pine and has a marble top. Tables like this were placed against walls, sometimes between windows. They were often used to showcase expensive marble tops. 

The base of the table might have been carved by James Richards who created the carved interior decorations at Marble Hill and often collaborated with the designer William Kent. Although Kent often used eagles in his designs, this table includes a peacock. Peacocks are a symbol of the ancient Roman goddess, Juno, protector of women. Such symbolism suggests that Henrietta Howard, the owner of Marble Hill, commissioned the tables. 

Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund (Eugene Cermotti Fund)

Date: 1930s

English Heritage Property: Eltham Palace and Gardens, Greenwich

In the 1930s, Stephen and Virginia Courtauld created an Art Deco mansion at Eltham Palace in south London. They included this carving of their pet lemur, Mah-Jongg, on the ceiling when they restored the Tudor great hall at Eltham. 

Mah-Jongg (also known as 'Jongy') was a ring-tailed lemur; a species from Madagascar. He was bought by the Courtaulds from the pet department of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London. Mah-Jongg had a specially built Lemur Room on the first floor of Eltham Palace which had central heating to create a tropical climate. The walls were painted with images of a Madagascan rainforest to help him feel at home. Mah-Jongg also had a bamboo ladder that allowed him to move between the ground floor and his sleeping area.

You can also see a painting of Mah-Jongg in a mural in the billiard room and find him sitting between Stephen and Virginia in a portrait hanging at Eltham Palace today.

Date: 2nd–3rd century AD

English Heritage Property: Chesters Roman Fort and Museum, Northumberland

This small figurine is made of copper alloy and today it’s known as the ‘Chesters Scottie dog’. We can see from this very lifelike object that Scottie dogs, or Scottish terriers, have changed very little in the past 2,000 years.

People in Roman Britain kept dogs to hunt and for chasing other animals away from food stores like granaries where grain was kept. They could also be kept as pets like we might today.

Date: 1615

English Heritage Property: Apsley House, London

This painting by Jan Brueghel the elder is part of The Wellington Collection at Apsley House. It represents the story of Noah and the Ark in the Old Testament of the Bible. God was unhappy with the wickedness he saw in the human race and sent a flood to cleanse Earth. God told a man called Noah to build an ark to protect his family and a male and female from every species of bird and beast. 

Although the subject of this painting became very popular and the artist painted many versions of it, this example is unique. The horse standing on the right faces left here but in other versions the horse is in the centre and faces towards the right. Many of the animals Brueghel painted were adapted from animals painted by another famous artist, Peter Paul Rubens. 

Date: 2nd–3rd century AD

English Heritage Property: Corbridge Roman Town and Museum, Northumberland

This is a building stone from Hadrian’s Wall – the Roman Empire’s northernmost frontier. Wild boars like the one in this carving symbolised strength and a warrior spirit for the Romans.

One of the legions that built Hadrian’s Wall used a wild board as its emblem. They carved this into building stones along the Wall to show which parts the legion had built. Today, this stone is on display in the museum at Corbridge Roman Town.

Date: c.1724–27

English Heritage Property: Marble Hill, Twickenham

This frieze sits across the top of the fireplace of the Great Room at Marble Hill. The whole room shows the main characteristics of the Palladian style of architecture that Henrietta Howard used throughout her home. The style was inspired by the work of an Italian designer called Andrea Palladio (1508–80) and was very fashionable during the eighteenth century. Palladio developed an influential plan for villas based on particular proportions and symmetry. The width, length and height of the walls of the Great Room are all 24 feet (7.3m), making it a perfect cube. One door on each of the side walls is false to make sure that the room is symmetrical. 

The carved eagles on this frieze were probably created by James Richards who was Master Carver to the King during the 1720s. Eagles were often used in Palladian decorations as they are a symbol of Rome and the Roman Empire. 

Date: c.1840-60

English Heritage Property: The Home of Charles Darwin – Down House, Bromley

Charles Darwin and his wife Emma weren’t typical Victorian parents. They spent a lot of time with their ten children (William Erasmus, Annie, Mary, Leonard, Henrietta, George, Elizabeth, Francis, Horace and Charles Waring) and created a happy family home at Down House.

These animal toys belonged to the Darwin children and are made of wire and plaster. You can see a range of different animals from all over the world in this collection: from elephants and giraffes to bears, beavers and sheep. As well as playing with toys like these, the Darwin children often helped their father with his observations and experiments in the gardens and grounds of Down House. Sometimes, the children teased their father by adding stones to the pile he would use to count his laps of the Sandwalk at Down.

As the children grew up, some of them became more interested in their father’s work and developed their own experiments. In 1870, Horace Darwin developed a wormstone to measure the movement of soil by worms. He observed that the stone sank two millimetres a year.

Object on loan from the Charles Darwin Trust 

Date: c.1936

English Heritage Property: Eltham Palace and Gardens, Greenwich

This painted elephant is part of the murals in the map room at Eltham Palace. In this room, you can see large maps of countries all over the world surrounded by painted decorations of associated animals, people and geographical features. From here, Stephen and Virginia Courtauld planned their travels around the world.

The Courtaulds were millionaires who transformed Eltham Palace during the 1930s to create a modern mansion in the Art Deco style. They also created a variety of garden features outside the palace. These included a rock garden, formal rose gardens and a series of garden ‘rooms’ which had been popular during the Edwardian period.

Date: 19th century

English Heritage Property: Ranger’s House – The Wernher Collection, Greenwich

This gold pendant is shaped like a salamander – a lizard-like amphibian mostly found in north and central America. The pendant is incrusted with stones including opals and rubies on the salamander’s back and is enamelled underneath. Although this piece was made in Italy during the 19th century it was made in a style that was popular in the 17th century.

Julius Wernher was a diamond magnate and businessman who developed a fine collection of jewellery (including this pendant) as well as paintings, furniture and decorative art. You can visit his collection, known as ‘The Wernher Collection’, which is now housed at Ranger’s House in Greenwich, London.