A sign that welcomed music lovers to a much-missed Norwich record shop, and tiny furniture made for doll houses a hundred years ago.
Those are among the remarkable objects added to the collection of Norfolk Museums Service in 2024 - picked as their favourites by curators.
Museum of Norwich: Backs Record Shop Sign
Beloved among city music fans, the Backs Records shop opened in August 1979 and was owned by Johnny Appel.
The striking exterior sign was the second sign to hang outside the Swan Lane store, now The Whiskey Shop.
Backs was at the heart of Norwich’s independent music scene through the 1980s and beyond, selling hard-to-find vinyl and getting Norwich bands to a wider national audience through its record production and distribution business.
Backs helped bands such as The Higsons and The Farmers’ Boys gain national prominence, and released tracks by at least 58 bands - many local to Norwich and Norfolk.
Mr Appel died in 2017, but the distribution business continues as Shellshock/Backs, based in Duke Street.
The spirit of the shop lives on through Soundclash Records in St Benedicts Street, launched by former Backs staff member Paul Mills when the original shop closed in 1991.
The sign was given to the East Anglian Music Archive in September 2010, but that has refocused on becoming an all-digital online archive.
The sign passed on to Richard Price, who remembered the shop from his childhood and donated it to the Museum of Norwich.
Strangers' Hall: Collection of West Acre Doll’s House Furniture
This beautiful handcrafted doll house furniture was produced in Norfolk more than a hundred years ago.
Wealthy philanthropist Ysabel Birkbeck started up a miniature furniture business from her mansion at West Acre High House, employing women from the village to help make them.
The collection was gifted to Strangers’ Hall by Janet Sutcliffe, a leading light in the Dolls’ House Society.
She bequeathed 42 pieces of the highly collectable furniture to Strangers’ Hall in memory of her late husband, Norman.
Once all the items have been catalogued, a showcase of the furniture will go on display.
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery: Paul Nash - Void of War
An official war artist in both world wars, Nash's lithograph is a scene of First World War devastation.
The print was designed for a poster advertising an exhibition of war pictures in London in 1918.
It was given to the museum service by writer Ronald Blyth, a friend of Nash's brother John.
It is on display in Norwich Castle in the exhibition JMW Turner and Changing Visions of Landscape.
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery: Gerard Stamp watercolour
Contemporary British artist Gerard Stamp, who lives in Norfolk, donated his painting titled 'The Restoration of a Royal Palace (Norwich Castle)'.
The exquisitely detailed painting shows the interior of Norwich Castle’s keep during the early phase of work for the Royal Palace Reborn project, when scaffolding was put up in the Norman building.
Mr Stamp said: "This painting took shape over several weeks and proved to be one of the most challenging compositions I've faced.
"Depicting the complex construction site required a number of artistic interventions, not least a reduction in the size of the Victorian-era Boardman arches."
Currently on display in the rotunda, there are plans to display the painting inside the transformed keep when it reopens in 2025.
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery: 14th century ivory panel
This carved medieval elephant ivory panel dates from the 14th century and depicts six saints beneath three gothic arcades.
St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist are within the left-hand arch, St Paul and St Peter within the central canopy and St Christopher and St James the Great within the right-hand panel.
Dr Tim Pestell, senior curator of archaeology, said the panel was probably part of a casket.
A grant from the Art Fund helped secure the purchase of the panel, which is being cleaned before it goes on display when the castle keep reopens.
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