A MUSEUM carried out tours of its unseen artefacts, many of which have never been on public display.

The 'behind the scenes' tours of Llandudno Museum and Gallery, with collections manager Richard Wakeman, gave an intriguing insight into the wide variety of items the museum holds in storage.

Items ranged from a leopard’s skull from the Llandudno Field Club collection, an Indian made Blunderbuss from the original Chardon collection, some intriguing specimens from the entomology collection, and many other fascinating objects.

The tour also covered subjects ranging from museum storage, conservation and object handling.

Richard has worked in the museum industry for more than 25 years and has worked with collections ranging from bog bodies, Egyptian mummies, Anglo Saxon and Viking swords, Iron Age mirrors, Neolithic hand Axes, Victorian hair jewellery and contemporary European ceramics.

He has installed objects at museums from LA to Boston and across Europe and the UK. He is also the collections staff trainer.

After the tours, Llandudno Museum posted on social media: "December 9 was the culmination of many months of work and we are extremely proud of the museum team for making this event happen.

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"It was an absolute pleasure to introduce visitors to some objects in the collection that have not been seen for decades or been on display.

"Like many other museums around the world, our public galleries are limited in space and we do not have the funds or space to show everything we have. Nor is it feasible for conservation to show everything at all times.

"Tours like this are a great way of sharing the objects with the community and the wider public, it was fantastic to engage with visitors to talk about the history of collecting, conservation issues both good and bad and just give a chance to talk history and museums with such wonderful groups.

"We were exceptionally proud to share our second tour with some our friends from the @greatormemines on the Great Orme who do an absolute incredible job of preserving a site of monumental and historic proportions."

Llandudno Museum will be carrying out tours when they reopen in February 2024.