This cabinet shows a De La Rue pack of playing cards dating from 1871.  De La Rue was a major producer and innovator of cards, credited with introducing rounded corners and improving the designs and durability of their products.

The pack was gifted to the museum by one of its most generous donors, the late Rosemary Palmer, a headteacher at Diss Grammar School until her retirement in 1871.  Over many years of involvement with the museum she donated 120 items: many of her last donations are on show this year.

 

Many older visitors will be familiar with the cupboards, tables and chairs depicted in the catalogue for utility furniture.  The catalogue was issued by the Board of Trade in January 1945, when Britain was gradually winning World War 2. However, these items could not just be ordered from a shop, as we do today.  They could only be purchased after a successful application to the Ministry.  Those whose furniture was destroyed by bombing were prioritised.

 

On show is a beautifully enamelled cast iron embossing press dating from about 1890.  

When hand written letters for business and social messages were relied upon, appearances mattered.  The quality of the paper and envelopes were key and an embossed sender’s address added an important finishing touch. 

 

Mail services played an important role in advertising local events.  Here we see posters that were sent to local village shops to advertise films showing in Diss Picture House.  These examples were sent to Mr Sheehan’s shop in Redgrave in the 1970s. The cinema closed in 1973 with How to Steal a Diamond in Four Uneasy Lessons.

 

Also on display is a Long Service medal awarded in 1895, to Private Cleer Sewell Alger, Junior, who served with the Norfolk Regiment 4th Volunteer Battalion. Cleer Sewell Alger junior was born in 1846, the son of surveyor Cleer Sewell Alger senior and his wife Ellen of Mere Street, Diss.  He was baptised in Diss on 31st January 1847.

 

His father was to become a renowned auctioneer, land surveyor, lithographer and photographer, and young Cleer junior followed into the family business.

 

Cleer junior married Emily Bishop in 1872 in Diss and took over the family business on his father’s death in 1892.

 

He was a member of the Army Reservists from 1879, serving with ‘B’ Company Norfolk Volunteer Reserves at Frenze Hall, Diss. In 1895 Pvte C S Alger was awarded a medal for long service in the Norfolk Regiment 4th VB. This medal was donated to Diss Museum in 2025 by Philip Clarke.

 

On holiday in Warwickshire, Cleer was tragically killed along with son Charles, in a motoring accident in July 1903, and his death was registered in Shipston-on-Stour.

 

Cleer was buried back in his home town of Diss on 30th July 1903.