Among assorted family memorabilia I discovered a small brown box (11 x 18 x 5 cm to be precise) with ‘KEEP’ on the top in my Dad’s handwriting. You wouldn’t believe what it’s possible to fit into such a small container:

• 10 penknives – who needs 10?! I can only think someone in the family collected them – I suspect it was my paternal Grandfather (Pop).

• 2 items with mother of pearl handles – they look a bit like part of a manicure set but the shape doesn’t look quite right.

• 2 silver cigarette cases. One definitely belonged to my Pop’s brother – it’s engraved on the inside cover with his initials and Kirkuk, Iraq 1930. By all accounts he was a bit of a rogue. He worked abroad for some years and died in Haifa in 1933 aged only 36 – the family story is that he was drunk and was run over by a bus! The other cigarette case is made by Mappin and Webb – it has what looks like a ‘B’ engraved on the front but I have no idea who it belonged to.

• a thick gold wedding band which is extremely dirty on the inside - could it have been my Pop’s?

• a signet ring with initial M and possibly P – I can’t identify who it would have belonged to, but it has been cut off someone’s finger!

• a gold-coloured pocket watch chain and a rolled gold “Genie” wristwatch, minus strap – the back has broken off and is stuck on with Sellotape – I’d never heard of them but Genie is still making watches.

• a silver swizzle stick with Gilbey’s Spey Royal Whisky engraved down the side – unopened bottles of this whisky from the 40s to 70s are being advertised at prices ranging from £250 - £400, but if our family ever owned any my Pop or my Dad would have drunk it!

• an ivory-coloured cigarette holder with a peacock on both sides.

• a locket containing photos of my Grandmother’s (Nana) father and her brother Horace, who was killed in Flanders in 1917 – he was just 19. I’m convinced this wasn’t my Nana’s locket as she disliked her father so much she told my Dad he was dead, even though he in fact died only 2 years before I was born. I think it may have belonged to her mother – Nana’s parents managed to produce 11 children in 23 years!

• a charm made like a tiny book – it opens and has 2 pages inside. The front is engraved with tiny shamrocks and “SHAMROCK II” is engraved diagonally across it. Shamrock II was a yacht made in Scotland in 1901. Pop’s family were from Scotland. I contacted a collector who had one very similar – hers had 6 photos inside including the yacht, the Captain and the America Cup trophy. It does look as though there has been something stuck inside mine but nothing there now.

• a child’s tooth (my dentist confirmed this) inset in a gold charm – I would love to know which child. I’ve been told it was common in Victorian times to incorporate baby teeth in jewellery, if a child lived to be old enough to grow adult teeth.

• a gold-coloured brooch with a fox head at one end – the fox has eyes which look like tiny pieces of glass – or could they be rubies?!

• a string of small pearls – who did they belong to I wonder?

• a copper-coloured star shaped pendant with what looks like either 6 legs or a flower engraved into it.

• one silver dagger Persian cufflink – this would have been purchased in Bahrain where my family were posted in the early 1960s – presumably the other one is lost.

• 2 very dirty 1903 pennies – research tells me that there were 2 different versions of the 1903 pennies known as an “open 3” and a “closed 3”. The “open 3” are the rarer ones. On the “open” version the 3 has a flat top whereas on the “closed” version the top of the 3 curls over. Neither are valuable enough to get excited about but 1903 was the year Pop was born.

• a Wrights’ Ropes wire rope gauge and fold up metal ruler in a leather case. Pop worked for Wrights’ Ropes which became part of British Ropes in 1963.

• a retractable pencil in a gold-coloured case

• gold-coloured objects – possibly tools – one shaped like a pen, the other with retractable metal needles inside and a compass - all have eyelets which indicate they were designed to be kept on a chain or clip – and more tools - a miniature set of spanners and a miniature hammer

• a Royal Army Medical Corps badge which must have been my Dad’s.