From us to you, a very British Museum Christmas gift: we invited twelve colleagues across the Museum to tell us about their favourite objects and gathered their responses into a special Christmas compendium. Hear all about the objects that they find inspiring, and the stories behind them.
Sushma Jansari – the Mathura lion capital (Room 33)
Elizabeth Morrison –the Folkton Drums (Room 51)
Sian Toogood – Greek slingshot (Room 69)
Ros Winton – Ancient Egyptian model (Room 65)
Tess Sanders – the Assyrian Lion hunt reliefs (Room 10)
Lee Roberts – Painted Japanese screen (tigers crossing a river) (Room 92)
Nick Harris – Japanese hand grenade casings in (Room 94)
Francesca Hillier – Palmerston gold cups (Room 47)
Alfie Meek – the Alfie lions (Room 47)
Russ McKeown – Portrait of late director Lord Wolfenden (not on display)
Richard Wakeman – the Vindolanda tablets (Room 50)
Hugo Chapman – Samuel Palmer watercolour (Prints and Drawings Study Room)
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, so Sushma and Sian (filling in for Hugo) are serving array of festive delights from the Museum. Sushma talks to Tim Clarke, Head of the Japanese Section as he looks back at almost four decades of work at the British Museum, while Sian and Francesca head back to the archives to check out Christmas cards from the 30s.