Images Dated 2016 January

Copper, Cornwall, England

An intricate dendritic growth of copper crystals. Also known as native copper, the specimen is pure copper, uncombined with any other elements. Some of the best dendritic (branching) specimens came from the Gwennap mines and, although the locality for this specimen is unknown, it is probable that it came from one of these mines, perhaps Wheal Unity. Copper lodes are widespread in Cornwall and, as a result, copper was one of the most significant metals mined in Cornwall

© RIC, photographer A.G. Tindle

The Mermaid of Zennor bench end in Zennor Church, Cornwall. Around 1925

A captain of a ship anchored off Pendower Cove believed that he was hailed by a mermaid and the people of Zennor had a mermaid figure carved on a bench end in Zennor Church as a warning to young men against smiling pon the maidens in church'. Glass lantern slide from a lecture, entitled Some Historic Cornish Beauty Spots, given by Cornishman and amateur photographer, Major Arthur William Gill, in around 1925. He was well known in Cornwall and elsewhere during the 1920s and 1930s for his presentations of stills and cine film to many groups including The Royal Institution of Cornwall, Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society and the London Cornish Society. The quarter plate slides which he took prolifically with his ordinary camera are, in many cases, colour. These were painted by his own hand to great effect

© From the collection of the RIC

Figure of Apis Bull, Egypt

Bronze standing figure of the Apis bull with sun disc between the horns, Egyptian. The statuette was found in 1832 in St Just in Penwith, Cornwall. It is from Roman Egypt, probably brought to Roman Britain in the first or second century AD. It is not known how it arrived in St Just. A similar statuette was found in a Roman context in York and the bull in similar form is shown on Alexandria coins of the Roman period. TRURI: 1865.14

© RIC, photographer Mike Searle