Harris staff member Joanne’s favourite collection items are the scent bottles, particularly the intricate green floral glassware pictured. In her own words, Joanne mentioned ‘the scent bottles are all lovely and I’m looking forward to seeing their return when we reopen in 2024 as it’s always nice to have a browse of them. It’s green my favourite colour and not a common colour for scent bottles.’

All 2,748 scent bottles in the Harris collection were collected by one woman – Mrs French. Mrs French started her collection as a young girl in the 1890s – and what began as a childhood hobby developed into a lifetime’s passion.