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7 subcategories
Birds

BIRDS

Cats

CATS

Dogs

DOGS

Fish

FISH

Horses

HORSES

Insects

INSECTS

Mytological Animals

MYTOLOGICAL ANIMALS

5,202 photos
Icon of Saint George, Byzantine,from the village of Pskov, Russia. The panel was used as the shutter of a barn window. Overpainted several times, the 14th century icon was finally uncovered by museum custodians. Saint George on a black horse is rare and accounts for the icon's popular name of "Black George". M&ME 1986,6-3,1
#30010819

Icon of Saint George, Byzantine,from the village of Pskov, Russia. The panel was...

Chatelaine plate, Merovingian, 7th century. Copper-alloy plate, originally tinned to resemble silver. When viewed vertically, the openwork design gives the impression of a stick figure between two other figures. The paired figures have birds' heads, and arms at an anatomically impossible angle. When the object is viewed on its side the design can be correctly read as a fish between two eagles. The eagle has an early, pagan significance: the Romans associated it with Jupiter and the Franks possibly with Wotan. However the scene may be given a Christian interpretation: the eagle possibly representing Christ, and the fish, a common Christian image, representing the redeemed human soul. The plate would have been worn on a chatelaine, a kind of belt, with straps attached to the loops at the top. It comes from Amiens, Somme, France. M&ME, 1891,10-19,59
#30010830

Chatelaine plate, Merovingian, 7th century. Copper-alloy plate, originally tinne...

0310000141 Stove-tile with the arms of James I, c1603-c1625. Earthenware stove-tile in the form of a panel with the lion and unicorn, and the royal Stuart coat-of-arms and the 'IR' cypher ('Iacobus Rex') for King James VI of Scotland and I of England. The incorporation of the Tudor rose and the Scottish thistle at the base symbolises the union of the two crowns. The coat of arms reflected loyalty to the crown. Wood-burning stoves were often made up from elaborately decorated tiles which were being produced in England in small numbers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the end of the sixteenth century the severe shortage in the south of England of wood for burning meant that coal, from Newcastle, was the primary source of heating fuel. Coal was not suitable for burning in closed stoves. M&ME, 1981,3-6,1
#30010835

0310000141 Stove-tile with the arms of James I, c1603-c1625. Earthenware stove-...

Porcelain ice-pail, French, 1811. This porcelain ice-pail, with its elephant heads, formed part of a gift made on 5 May 1812 to the Emperor Francis I of Austria from his son-in-law Napoleon I. In a small composition by Jean-François Robert, Napoleon himself, with the Empress Marie-Louise, can be seen in the landau carriage in front of the Château of Saint-Cloud.The pail originally had metal liners intended to hold ice-cream, surrounded by crushed ice. The elephant heads suggest something of a Rococo fantasy, but the gilt ground and patterns of matt gilded decoration are firmly in the Empire style, reflecting the splendour and luxury of the Napoleonic court. M&ME, 1985,12-3,1-2
#30010840

Porcelain ice-pail, French, 1811. This porcelain ice-pail, with its elephant hea...

Silver tetradrachm of Azes I, Scythian, from Gandhara and Taxila, north-west Pakistan, 57-10 BCE. Appropriate for a ruler whose ancestors were nomads from Central Asia, his coin image shows a king with standard and spear, mounted on horseback. CM 1894-5-6-570
#30010843

Silver tetradrachm of Azes I, Scythian, from Gandhara and Taxila, north-west Pak...

Copy of a gold stater, Iron Age, 3rd. During the third century, the Celtic people of Continental Europe began to manufacture copies of Greek gold and silver coins. These were the first coins ever made in northrn Europe. The chariot on this coin is a good reproduction of the coin of Phillip of Macedon (359-336 BCE). The Greek inscription "Philippou"- of Phillip, is correct, although writing had not yet been adopted in northern Europe. CM, 1861.5-9.2
#30010860

Copy of a gold stater, Iron Age, 3rd. During the third century, the Celtic peopl...

Silver bowl, Carolingian, 9th century. Ecclesiastical bowl of gilded solver and niello with a knobbed lid,decorated in relief with rosettes of acanthus leaves, some enclosing crosses and vine tendrils inhabited by birds. The birds are a Christian symbol and represent paradise or Christ in union with his church. The bowl, or Pyx, was used to contain communion wafers and was probably made in northern France. From Spain. M&ME, AF.33041
#30010865

Silver bowl, Carolingian, 9th century. Ecclesiastical bowl of gilded solver and...

0310000083 Silver spoon from the first Cyprus treasure, Byzantine, c600 AD. Spoon embossed with a running ram on the bowl; one of a set of eleven. The pear-shaped bowl is engraved on the underside with a foliate pattern, and attached by means of a disc to an elaborate baluster handle. The animals probably alluded to the hunt, and would have been an entertaining and appropriate subject for high-status domestic cutlery. The tradition of decorating the spoons of bowls with floral patterns, inscriptions, and occasionally animals, goes back to the fourth and fifth centuries but none of the earlier examples have such beautiful detail. This example formed part of the first hoard of silver found at the ancient site of Lambousa in Cyprus, near the modern village of Lapithos. M&ME, 1899,4-25,23
#30010867

0310000083 Silver spoon from the first Cyprus treasure, Byzantine, c600 AD. Spo...

Silver pendant, Slav (Kiev type), 12th century. This silver temporal pendant or earring is one of a pair. It would have been worn in the region of the temples, suspended from a crown or head-dress. The pendant is decorated with an interlaced, mythical animal and geometric designs on a black, nielloed ground. The animal may be a dynastic symbol. Silver pendants of this type are later versions of gold examples and would have been worn as female court regalia at ceremonial occasions in the princely court of Kiev, the capital of the early state of Rus'. The pendant was found in 1906, buried in a metal casket in Trekhsvyatytelska Street (Street of the Three Saints), opposite the gates of the Mikhailovsky Golden Dome Monastery in Kiev, Ukraine. The hoard was probably buried at the time of the Tartar invasions and sack of Kiev around 1240. M&ME, 1907,5-20,13
#30010870

Silver pendant, Slav (Kiev type), 12th century. This silver temporal pendant or...

Royal manufacture of Sevres porcelain Plate: "Souvenir de Rosny" 1839; Sevres hard porcelain, enamel on biscuit porcelain 68cm x 68cm OA 11314
#30010933

Royal manufacture of Sevres porcelain Plate: "Souvenir de Rosny" 1839; Sevres...

Portable mosaic: Saint George defeating the dragon First half of the 14th century; Constantinople OA 3110
#30010942

Portable mosaic: Saint George defeating the dragon First half of the 14th centu...

Plate: Henri II, king of France, on horseback Middle of the 16th century; Limoges Enamel on copper; diameter: 28cm N 1247
#30010948

Plate: Henri II, king of France, on horseback Middle of the 16th century; Limog...