by Syma Mohammed

They are two frogs duelling, although it is not known if they fought to the death. 

Found in a cupboard at Hill of Tarvitt, Fife, there are no records for them and their origin is shrouded in mystery but they are among the thousands of items that have been found in properties during an official audit of National Trust for Scotland (NTS) properties.

Also found and catalogued for the first time are the alleged death mask of Mary, Queen of Scots, a bannock toaster Robert Burns gave as a wedding gift to his wife Jean Armour, and weapons from the battlefield at Culloden.

All have been digitally documented in the pioneering project. 

NTS is undertaking a two-year project to catalogue more than 100,000 objects from 47 properties around the country.

The £1.3 million scheme is the most comprehensive survey of Scottish artefacts ever taken.

Once complete, the public will be able to go online and find out the history, details and context of every object at a NTS property.

Since the project began last July, five teams made up of 27 people have photographed and catalogued almost 60,000 items from the Trust’s collections. 
More than a third of the objects, 21,000, are being catalogued for the first time as part of Project Reveal.

While some of the undocumented items have been on display, the vast majority have been gathering dust in cupboards, attics and the odd turret.

Such items range from fossils, children’s toys, paintings, decorative objects, tapestries, rugs and furniture to the weird and wonderful. 

An example of eccentric artefacts include stuffed frogs duelling and playing musical instruments. Also found in a random cupboard was an educational music board game from the 19th century. 

The game, found at The Georgian House, Edinburgh, is one of an estimated two or three surviving games that were invented by teacher and performer Ann Young circa 1801.

Ms Young (later Gunn) was the only woman to obtain a patent for an educational children’s game from George III in 1801, and just one of 
40 women to obtain such a patent in the 200-year period between 1617 and 1816.

At Brodie Castle, Moray, a child’s doll with a painted porcelain face and human hair was discovered in a turret along with other toys. The sinister looking doll comes with two miniature knitting needles and a small piece of knitting tucked into her apron.

At The Hill House in Helensburgh, which was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret McDonald for the publisher Walter Blackie and his family, fragments of carpets originally designed for the house were rediscovered, allowing staff to understand how the house would have initially looked. 

Fragments of Mrs Anna Blackie’s beads, which are painted in a portrait of her that is in the house, were also found, allowing the jewellery and the painting to be juxtaposed side by side. 

At Broughton House, Kirkcudbright, a chauffeur’s incontinence bag was discovered in a box by team members and is believed to date from about 1910.

Weird and wonderful items that have been catalogued for the first time include 
a witch bottle found during building works near the Bachelors’ Club in Tarbolton, South Ayrshire. 

Superstition was at its height in the 17th and 18th centuries and people who suffered from illness and misfortune, or the death of family or livestock, believed they had been cursed.

They believed that by creating a folk charm made up of urine from the victim they could reverse the curse. It was also believed the witch bottle could also protect against witchcraft and it was often placed near a door or window. The witch bottle that was found contains urine residue.  

Over at Culross Palace, Fife, the Project Reveal team found a rusty key in a teapot and tried to solve the mystery of where it belonged. 

After trying every lock in the palace, they found it opened a walnut Mary and William period writing desk, which had not been opened in living memory.

Wendy Turner, who is spearheading Project Reveal, said it is a personal and professional highlight.  She said: “When I heard the National Trust of Scotland 
was undertaking this project I was really excited to be a project manager. 

“As a general rule, heritage organisations don’t have the time and resources to carry out an inventory and digitisation project for their entire holdings.

“It means that at the NTS we have a clear picture of the collections, we can manage those collections from the point of view of knowing what 
their condition is, whether they need conservation work, to be able to 
refresh collections what’s on public display more frequently and bring out things that haven’t been seen before.

“We are delighted we have been able to reveal an additional 20,000 objects 
to date that were not documented or digitised.

“For me, the opportunity to visit all these properties has been a huge bonus.”