Collection: Chelmsford City Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Industry and Technology

  Collections represent a wide range of Chelmsford’s industries including trades and crafts, agriculture and agricultural processing, with a main emphasis on the three key Chelmsford firms – Crompton, Britain’s first electrical engineers, Hoffmann, Britain’s first specialist manufacturers of rolling bearings, and Marconi, who opened the world’s first radio factory in Chelmsford in 1899. Key items include an early Hoffmann ball lathe, an 1890s Crompton arc lamp and collections of Marconi TV cameras, transmitters and receivers. The collection also includes the last timber-built Chelmer barge ‘Susan’ (1953) and the wooden army hut which housed radio station 2MT Writtle, source, in 1922, of Britain’s first regular radio programmes.”

  Fine Art

  The fine art collection shows pictures of the Chelmsford area and wider in Essex, from the Eighteenth to twentieth centuries. It also has interesting work by well-known Essex twentieth century artists such as Edward Bawden, John Nash, Michael Rothenstein, John Aldridge, showing their design and illustration work as well as their paintings, and Lynton Lamb, who was better known as a designer and illustrator than as a painter.

  Decorative Art

  The Ceramics collections include Seventeenth and Eighteenth century tinglaze dishes; nineteenth century Castle-Hedingham ware, the Essex Art Pottery made by Edward Bingham and his family in North Essex. It is possibly the largest number of this pottery on public display, and some of the items are exceptionally large too: the 25″” (63.5cm) diameter “”De Vere”” dish of 1901 is heavily ornamented, while a 30″” (77.4cm) high vase is decorated with Roman soldiers and captives. Modern ceramics are represented with work by Joanna Constantinidis (1927-2000) of contrasting austere serenity. The is also a significant collection of glassware, notably the Tunstill Collection bequest of 18th-century English drinking glasses which includes many rare and unusual pieces from this varied period.; A key collection of costume is one that belonged to Rebecca Shaen of Crix, Hatfield Peverel which includes shoes, boots and dresses from 1790 through to the 1850s. The Shaen family were friends of novelist Elizabeth Gaskell and were involved in causes such as Chartism and the establishment of working mens clubs. A large collection of costume, the earliest item being a 17th century womans shoe found hidden in a building. The bulk of the costume collection dates from the 19th and 20th centuries. The key item in the collection is a very fine man’s metal-thread embroidered woollen coat from about 1705, which has been known in the past as ‘The King’s Coat’. A key collection of costume is one that belonged to Rebecca Shaen of Crix, Hatfield Peverel. There are two 2 embroideries – an 18th century still life by Mrs Mary Knowles and the early 19th century embroidery showing a balloon over Chelmsford Church.;The collection which belonged to militant local suffragette, Grace Chappelow is small but important – a certificate signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, a knife and cup from Holloway Prison, a miniature hammer, 2 suffragette badges and a postcard of Grace holding a suffragette placard

  Archaeology

  The archaeology collections include Prehistoric material culture; Bronze Age hoards; Roman items from the Roman Town at Moulsham (Caesaromagus), the religious site at Ivy Chimneys, Witham, and villas at Chignall St James and Great Holts Farm, Boreham. The medieval collections include material from the Motte and Bailey Castle at Pleshey, King John’s Hunting lodge at Writtle, the Dominican Friary at Moulsham; the tile kiln at Danbury and the medieval pottery from Mill Green. Post medieval material from the dredgings of the Rivers Can and Chelmer (e.g. pewter) Excavation archives (English Heritage approved status storage) from Chelmsford (Town and District), Brentwood District, and Billericay Roman Town. Earlier material from the Roman Essex Society and the Essex Archaeological Society (e.g. some material from the Roman villa at Rivenhall).

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds approximately 30 ancient Egyptian objects. Most or all thought to be modern forgeries, but this is awaiting verification. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: wall plaster, shabtis (probably fake). The wall plaster is said to have come from Armant.

  Subjects

  Ancient civilizations; Antiquities; Antiquity; Archaeology; Egyptology

  Numismatics

  Several recent hoards of gold Celtic coinage from Great Leighs, Great Waltham, Ford End Hoard of Roman gold solidi from Good Easter. Roman and medieval coinage Good type series of English coinage from 1760 on display Good collection of Essex tokens 17th and 18th centuries, including the Chainey Collection, on display Paranumismatica Rest of world coinage.

  Natural Science

  The museum holds the complete natural history collections of past local people like Hope and Dr Salter, the latter whose favourite brown bear, ‘Boris’ is a well loved feature. There is a living honeybee observation hive. The museum has including important research collections and other material that is only periodically on display. These include beetles, butterflies and moths, bird eggs, large tropical shell collections, many fine taxidermy cases and scientific study skins. ;The large fossil collections are rich in Jurassic, Cretaceous, Eocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene material. There are smaller but fine rock and mineral collections too. In two British wildlife galleries there are large numbers of animal (mostly bird) taxidermy mounts. There are also very fine collections of cased specimens illustrating the work of many leading taxidermists of their day, like Ward, Spicer, Cooper and Waters.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC