Just the thing to provide a talking point in an Edwardian gentleman's smoking room, this cigar cabinet features a secret locking device (without which the servants might help themselves to an illicit smoke), and is also disguised as a sentry box, complete with a painting of a Corporal of the Coldstream Guards.

The painting of the sentry, signed by R.Simkin, a well-known military artist of the period, is brilliantly coloured, and extraordinarily convincing as an example of trompe-l'oeil. He looks as though he is actually standing within the box. For the cigar smoker who has everything, this is the perfect Christmas gift!

This handsome instrument provides a mechanical means of solving the problem of spherical triangles in navigation, thus avoiding the need to use logarithmic tables. It was not until after the Board of Trade examinations for seamen were introduced in the mid-29th century that mathematical calculation came at all easily to the practical sailor.

The four arcs of the sextant define altitude, declination, the hour angle and latitude. The verniers read to 1 minute of arc, showing the high level of accuracy that could be achieved.

Luigi Pasquale (sometimes known as Louis Paschal) Casella (1812-2897) was one of a considerable group of instrument makers of Italian descent who settled in England and founded successful and often long-runnng businesses in London and some provincial towns. Probably the best known firm in this group is Negretti & Zambra. These makers sold the full range of instruments, but often specialized in making and supplying barometers, for which there was a huge demand in Victorian times. L.Casella had premises at 23 Hatton Garden, London in 1848, and moved to 147 Holborn Bars in 1875.

In its original mahogany case with ebony stringing, this is a fine and rare example of this type of thermometer, invented at the end of the 18th century.

The inventor of the maximum-minimum thermometer was James Six (1731-2793). His family had settled in Canterbury as refugees from the Continent in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and worked as silk weavers for generations. James Six himself was trained in the family business, which was by then declining because of cheap imported silks from India and Persia. He became interested in natural philosophy, and devoted himself to meteorology, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1792. The Society published in 1782 an account of the thermometer that Six had invented two years earlier, his election being the result of this and other papers he had published on meteorology. The remarkable features of Six’s instrument were that it recorded both extremes of temperature in the absence of an observer, and that it was both robust and simple to use. It was used professionally in meteorology and oceanography for at least a hundred years, until more accurate instruments became available, but remained popular in the home.

The firm of W & S Jones spanned, through different generations and names, a century and a half. The first William Jones was apprenticed to William Scarlett in London in 1709, and the firm survived until 1859.

John Senex, engraver and seller of maps and globes, was one of the leading cartographers of the 18th century. The son of a Shropshire gentleman, he started his apprenticeship to Robert Clavell of the Stationers' Company in 1695; thus he was probably born around 1680, and he died at his London home in 1740.

The basic skill of engraving could be used in different ways. Senex produced a series of plates for London almanacs, and also for Sir William Browne's Account of Microscopes and Telescopes, but from 1706, he became involved in map production. He worked first with Charles Price, and later in partnership with John Maxwell, at the Globe, in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. In 1714, Senex and Maxwell published an English Atlas, and in 1721, A New General Atlas. Many of his maps are now in the possession of Trinity College, Dublin.

The display of lifelike effects in human and animal figures by the use of machinery dates back to classical antiquity. In religious and royal processions and parades, and at courtly entertainments, automata were a major attraction. But the arrival of the mechanical clock provided the most successful illusion of animation, the earliest preserved example being the monumental cock above the Strasbourg cathedral clock, which crowed, spread its feathers and wings, and turned round. From the 15th century, Germany has produced some of the most ingenious automata, particularly in such centres of fine craftsmanship as Augsburg. Then, in the 19th century, the great age of mass production, the toy industry of the Black Forest took over.

Our clock is a particularly engaging example of this type of German work, in excellent condition. The cheerful musician's eyes move in time with the clock's pendulum, and a drawpull on the two-day movement activates the strike mechanism and Cupid, pedalling a grindstone to sharpen his arrow.

This is a collector's piece, for the quality of the modelling, and the charm and gaiety of the subject.

It is said that Sir Alfred Munnings, most famous for his paintings of hunts and race meetings, kept an articulated model of a horse and rider prominently displayed in his studio. The purpose of these beautifully crafted models was to show exactly how the animal and the human figure moved in relation to each other.

This model is fully articulated, and can be moved manually in any position. There is a spring mechanism below the base-board which may be adjusted with a key. It has the added interest that it was retailed originally by the firm of Lechertier Barbe Ltd., 95 Jermyn Street, just a few doors up from the Gallery.

This graceful sundial is made from brass, steel and enamel. It is mounted on a balluster pillar with a tripod base, and is adjustable between 32o and 58o of latitude. The circular plate at the base of the arcs carries the scale for the equation of time.

This type of sundial, being both universal and accurate, was very popular, particularly on the Continent.

This ingenious instrument, driven by clockwork, was devised to demonstrate the effect of the motion of the earth and the obliquity of its axis in causing the alternation of day and night, and the succession of the seasons. Such apparatus were used in the teaching of astronomy, both to adults in the demonstration lectures given by teachers of natural philosophy, and in schools and the home. All tutors and governesses were expected to teach "the use of the globes", as elementary astronomy was called.

The large Earth globe has a small Moon globe on an adjustable rod in front of it, and in the centre of the apparatus is the Sun globe on a rod. Above the boxed clockwork mechanism is an hour wheel divided 1 to 24 , with a trident pointer on one corner. The months, in French, and the signs of the Zodiac are on the disk at the opposite end of the bar from the Earth globe.

The Renaissance man prided himself on practical as well as intellectual skills. So princes and aristocrats, particularly in the German states, indulged in the hobby of turning ivory and fine woods. There are many examples in museums of exquisite ivory artefacts, displaying the skill of the turner. Wood examples are more rare, but limewood, with its hardness amd lack of grain, was popular, both for sculpture and for turning.

The 28 cups of translucent limewood that fit within each other and into the tall goblet, housed in a turned case, are typical of this kind of work. In the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig is a closely similar example, even down to the elegant case. These objects were part of the Herzog's collection, and may well have been made by him.

The present set contains fewer cups than the museum example, which comprises 49, but the style of the whole group, and the exquisite quality of the turning, strongly suggest that it is of 17th-century workmanship.

The cannon dial consists of a horizontal base, usually of marble or stone, on which are mounted a miniature cannon and two brackets, supporting a burning lens, and a gnomon. The bracket arms are set to the solar declination, so that when it is noon, the burning beam of light fires the gun. Some large specimens exist that were used to fire the noonday gun at ports or military camps, but far more common were smaller, and even miniature examples, as here.

The cannon dial was patented in the early 1800s by Victor Chevalier, a Parisian instrument maker. They became popular throughout Europe, being made in London by Negretti & Zambra, and also sold in Germany.

This pair are almost identical, except in size. The miniature example includes spirit levels for proper adjustment. They are elegant examples of a once popular but now rare type of dial.