Adopt an Object: available objects
The Adopt an Object scheme allows members to help Reading Museum care for its collection by adopting one of its objects for a year – either to show your own support, or as a special and unique gift.
Adopters receive a certificate including an image and description of the object, and their name will appear on its label in the gallery.
The adoption fee includes membership of the Friends of Reading Museum and as such entitles the adopter to a 10% discount on any purchase from the museum shop or website.
Objects available for adoption are all on display in the galleries of Reading Museum and are from all the collections from ceramics to hand axes to natural history and biscuit tins.
To adopt an object click the button next to the item and complete the online form.
CLICK HERE AND READ BEFORE ADOPTING
Ancient & Medieval History
Blue glass bowl
Roman ribbed glass bowl made in Italy in the 1st century AD. It was in sixteen pieces when it was excavated at Silchester in 1895.
Object ref: REDMG:1995.5.4
Viking sword from the Thames
This sword is signed ‘Ulfberht’, a name that appears on the blades of some of the finest Viking swords in northern Europe. However, other less skilled makers used the name on their swords too.
Object ref: REDMG:1947.285.1
Child footprint tile
Roman tile from Silchester with the impression of a child’s footprint. Tiles were left to dry before firing and many bear the footprints of people and animals who walked over them.
Object ref: REDMG:1995.98.1
Dog from Blewburton
Skeleton of a dog found buried with a woman, a horse, sherds of pottery and an iron axehead during excavation of an Iron Age hillfort at Blewburton Hill in 1948.
Object ref: REDMG:1953.192.1
Dragon fight capital
Each of the four faces of this Reading Abbey stone shows two winged dragons and two youths pulling out their tongues. These scenes might represent the victory of Christianity over sin or a Norse saga, or they may just be decorative.
Object ref: REDMG:1977.100.1
Feeding bottle from Silchester
Small Roman pottery bottle, known as a tettina, which would have been used to feed an infant or an invalid.
Object ref: REDMG:1992.1.1496
Gargoyle from Reading Abbey
This gargoyle was given to the Museum in 1929 by Mr H.T.Morley, who was an active supporter of the Museum throughout his life.
Object ref: REDMG:1929.102.1
Handaxe from McIlroy’s Pit
This Lower Palaeolithic flint handaxe is as sharp now as when it was originally made. It was found in a clay pit in Tilehurst in 1903.
Object ref: REDMG:1945.$13.1
Head of bishop
Sculptured head of a saint who was a bishop or a mitred abbot, re-used in Reading Abbey’s Plummery Wall.
Object ref: REDMG:1991.1.569
Tile game board
A floor tile from Silchester, inscribed for use as a game board.
Object ref: REDMG:1995.1.186