Yorkshire farmer’s collection of ancient pottery on show

The Greek and Cypriot pottery was gifted to Harrogate in the 1960s by Benjamin W Kent.

The collection consists of around 200 items. Mr Kent also had a collection of Egyptology, also gifted to Harrogate.

Newcastle University’s Sally Waite has brought the objects to life by revealing how the pots were made and decorated, what they were used for and to whom they once belonged.

This exhibition is accompanied by a new publication Acquiring Antiquity: Greek and Cypriot Pottery by Dr Waite.

Jane Sellars, curator of art, said: “Our Access All Areas project goes from strength to strength, bringing fascinating new areas of the collections out into the open. Our freelance experts are making discoveries in every area which everybody will be able to enjoy in the exhibitions and books we are producing this year.”

Mr Kent, of Tatefield Hall in Beckwithshaw, on the outskirts of Harrogate, inherited his interest in archaeology from his father, Bramley. As a teenager he was invited to join an excavation in Egypt by Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, but decided his farm could not spare him.