SPALDING GENTLEMEN'S SOCIETY

23rd September 2011

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?

The latest series of S.G.S. public lectures began with the event which had to be postponed December last year because of the snow. The event was intended to evoke the once popular TV programme “ANIMAL VEGETABLE MINERAL”. In this case the chairman was Colin Young who is a familiar face on the current crop of TV programmes that are based on antique objects. The panel consisted of local expert Andrew Skiba, the Finds Officer from Cambridgeshire museums, Helen Fowler and David Robinson O.B.E. whose interests and achievements are too well known and numerous to summarise. The other stars of the event were the objects which the panel were invited to identify and comment upon. They were all from the Society’s museum. The format of the evening was thus: an object was brought on for the panel to examine. At the same time, for the benefit of the audience, a large image of the object was shown on the big screen and a brief description of the object was shown on a smaller screen visible only to the audience. The panel acted together in their generally successful identification of the objects; so this was not a competition between panellists. The chairman awarded points to the panel, (in a fairly generous fashion) depending on the speed and accuracy of the identification. All the objects were dealt with in an interesting and entertaining way and the event was certainly a way of raising the awareness of just what treasures of interest there are in the Society’s museum. Special credit for the success of the evening goes to the chairman and members of the panel and to Tom Grimes, curator of the Society’s museum for managing the logistics and presentation of the objects.