Horse’s Head and Neck Defenses. France-Italy, 15th century

16th century French encryption book from the court of Henry II

17th century silver skull watch, Louvre Museum

The bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln

3500 years old amber amulet in the form of a bear. Found in Słupsk, Poland

A carbonised by volcanic ash loaf of bread with the stamp ‘Property of Celer, Slave of Q. Granius Verus’, Herculaneum (near Pompeii), 79 AD

A watch belonging to Akito Kawagoe which stopped at 8:15 exact time of the explosion. Hiroshima, 1945

Ancient egyptian gold finger-ring. About 1070 – 712 BC

Ancient Roman finger ring with a phallus (symbol of fertility and good fortune). Thorvaldsens Museum

Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s blood-stained uniform, 1914

Axe of Pharaoh Ahmose, Egypt, c. 3500 years old

Benjamin Franklin’s silk suit (1778)

Board game pieces – From the Viking town Birka, Sweden (8th-10th century)

Bust of Tsar Alexander III made by Fabergé, c. 1900

Carved stone bed in Roman brothel (Lupanar) in Pompeii, 79 AD

Catherine the Great’s table, probably destroyed by communists in 1950

Chinese Sword with inlaid openwork hilt, Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC)

Crusaders graffiti in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 11-13th century AD, Israel

Death mask of Napoleon, taken on the Island of St Helena on 7 May 1821, two days after his death

Detail of the the best-preserved and most complete ancient chariot – Etruscan Monteleone chariot, c. 530 BC, Italy

End of Charles Darwin’s walking stick

Ferdinand II armour. Created by Lucio Piccinino (1550-1589). Gift from Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza

Galileo’s original telescope, 16th century

George Washington’s false teeth

Gun that started The First World War – Gavrilo Princip’s FN M1910 (serial number 19074)

Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, late 10th-early 11th century

Jim Lovell’s glove (with attached checklist) from the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission

Michelangelo’s handwritten 16th century grocery list

Napoleon’s pearl-handled grooming kit with gold accents at Fontainebleau

Napoleon’s toothbrush, c 1795

Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit worn on the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first man on the moon on July 20, 1969

Oldest known wooden stairs – 3000-year-old (Bronze Age); wooden staircase found at Hallstatt Mine

Oldest stone bridge in Rome. The Ancient Roman Pons Aemilius (today called Ponte Rotto). Initially constructed in 179 BC

Otto von Bismarck’s helmet, 1867

Pen used by Marshal Ferdinand Foch (on behalf of all the Allied Powers) to sign the prolongation of the Armistice with Germany (and its defeated associated powers), 16th January 1919

Roman couch and footstool with bone carvings and glass inlays, 2000 years old

Roman Farmer’s calendar

Saw used to amputate the Earl of Uxbridge’s leg at Waterloo, 1815

Scythian golden comb (5th century BC)

Shadow of someone sitting on a stair. Seconds after A-bomb exploded many Japanese vaporized and left only a shadow. Hiroshima Museum

The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in North America (1640)

The hat Abraham Lincoln wore on the night he was assassinated

The Kniphausen Hawk, a ceremonial pouring vessel made in 1697 for George William von Kniphausen, Count of the Holy Roman Empire

The service weapon of J R R Tolkien, who served on the Somme before contracting trench fever in October 1916

The Talisman of Charlemagne. The amulet was buried with Charlemagne in 814. Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon, wore it at her coronation in 1804

This First World War period protective face mask (as issued to Tank Corps personnel) was worn in the Battle of Cambrai, 20 November 1917

Tutankhamun’s golden sandals

Wreck of the Swedish warship Mars, which exploded during the first battle of Öland, 1564 (Baltic Sea)

Engagement ring which Napoleon Bonaparte gave to Josephine

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