This full-rounded hollow copper model of a 16th-century galleon is a particularly rare and fine example of the American craft of weather vane production. Vanes began to be made as a hand craft, first from wood, and then from sheet metal. Soon every farm and country house had to have one, animals, especially horses and the rooster being popular. As cities grew and large commercial building went up, more elaborate vanes were ordered to provide the finishing touch. So large and detailed a vane would have been made to order, perhaps for a shipping office, or for a sailing club. Unfortunately, its history is unknown.

Its exquisite craftsmanship, however, remains, with the 6-foot hull moving on its supporting shaft at the touch of a finger, and the details of decks, masts, pennants and rigging wonderfully intact. The colour is the soft blue-green of weathered copper. Imagine this as a centre-piece for a courtyard or formal garden - irresistible.

This is pure Lilliput - a perfect, detailed model of an extending Victorian dining table, with no fewer than five leaves to accommodate a growing family and parties of gargantuan size. The dining room was almost a Victorian invention, and the amazing meals eaten at these massive tables are described in the cookery books of the period, most notably Mrs Beeton's. Every well-to-do home needed a table that was adaptable from family to party use, and a series of leaves that could provide different lengths was an ideal solution.

Those were the days when salesmen visited the home extensively, and this may well have been a demonstration model for such visits. Or it may have been used for shop or department store display. Either way, it is a lovely piece of work in its own right, and would make a delightful gift to a collector of Victoriana.

The altitude ring dial was made for use at a particular location, the time being found by measuring the solar altitude. This example is neither signed nor dated, but examination of the Zodiac scale in association with dating evidence makes it clear that it was made before the great reform of the calendar by Papal Decree in 1582.

The largest of the early ring dials known until now is in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and measures 5 inches in diameter. It was made at Passau, near Munich, in 1696. More than a century earlier, Humfrey Cole of London made, in 1575, a ring dial measuring only 3 inches, a more typical sizing. This dial is therefore unique for its size, and, though undecorated, it is the work of an expert craftsman, who achieved a high degree of accuracy by engraving both sides of a flat strip of brass before bending it into a ring. Some of the number forms are like those found on German medieval instruments and monuments. The latitudes at which it was designed to be used are in the South German and North Italian regions of Europe. The dial was therefore most likely made in one of the great metal-working centres of South Germany, perhaps Augsburg, or in Vienna, around 1500.

The optical instrument firm founded in London by Andrew Ross in the early 19th century, the great age of the microscope, was highly successful, and diversified into selling telescopes and cameras, the special interest of Thomas Ross, Andrew's son. In 1850, a young German, J.H.Dallmeyer (1830-1883) joined the firm, and married Thomas's sister. After Andrew's death in 1859, the brothers-in-law went their separate ways. Thomas specialized in photography, while Dallmeyer continued the optical instrument trade, specializing in telescopes and objectives, two of which are in the collection of the Royal Microscopical Society.

Observing the heavens was a recreational study that particularly appealed to the Victorians, requiring some knowledge and technical skill, and leading to proper wonder at the splendour and complexity of the natural world. This fine astronomical telescope, a particularly well preserved and complete example, shows mid-Victorian craftsmanship at its

This unusually large ball clock has New York time on its main dial, and on 6 subsidiary dials the time in London, Tokyo, Beijing, Karachi, Moscow, and Paris. It is a product of the famous Waltham Watch Company of Massachusetts. This New England town was a centre for fine clock and watch making from 1854, when Aaron Dennison (1812-1895), the man credited with solving the problems of early mass production of watches, settled there and established a factory. The business went though some difficult times, but survived, and in 1923 became the Waltham Watch and Clock Company. Two years later, this was simplified as the Waltham Watch Company.

One of the Company's most characteristic products was an all glass ball table "watch", generally of the size to use at the bedside. But this example is strikingly large, and very rare.

No one can resist the lure of hidden treasure. All over the world, skilled navigators, divers, and marine archaeologists are searching for the wrecks of ships that have foundered with valuable cargoes. Sailing ships were particularly vulnerable to being driven on to a lee shore, or into shallow waters, where they could go aground and and capsize, pounded by breakers. The West Indies is one of the most dangerous areas, and one where Spanish galleons loaded with the wealth of the New World often came to grief. Another area where there are many wrecks is the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of North Africa.

Shown here is a group of typically varied objects acquired by the Gallery from the Cape Verde salvage. Pride of place at the back goes to a superb terracotta tile of a ship in full sail, a most unusual and beautiful decorative object. Then there are a pestle and mortar and a sand-glass, perhaps from the captain's cabin, where the single-handed dividers at the front of the picture would also have been used in plotting the course. Of 18th-century origin are the conical lead sounding weights, and the two bronze signalling cannons. Domestic items are the pewter candle stick and set of plates. And there is money, too, not Spanish gold, but Swedish copper coins, and coin clusters of silver cob coins on a lead base.