Some of the exhibits are over 500 years old and come for all around the world.
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Galleries at the Museum include:
The Streatlam Galleries – which house archaeology, curiosities, and toys.
Fashion & Textile Gallery – with displays of fashion and textiles dating from as early as 1550.
Silver & Metals Gallery – which includes amongst its exhibits the musical automaton Silver Swan (this automaton is pictured on Street View in October 2015)
Picture Galleries - with works from the Renaissance through to the late nineteenth century.
The Bowes Museum is named for John Bowes, a collector, who in 1872 bought the Silver Swan from James Cox, a jewellery, who had a mechanical museum where the Silver Swan was first displayed.
Source: ‘Atlas Obscura: The Second Edition’ edited by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras & Ella Morton (ISBN:978-1-5235-0648-4)