The pumpkin-shaped treat box was made to be employed during the tea ceremony by artist Ikeda Taishin (1825-1903), appointed Imperial Household Artist (Teishitsu Gigei-in帝室技芸員) in 1896.
It’s been made out of a pumpkin exocarp: the shell has been cut transversely so that it could be used as a lid, while the insides of the pumpkin have been emptied out, levigated and let dry. The decoration in relief on a natural wood background have been made using thick, carved mother of pearl, powder sprinkled with gold, shiny, opaque and granulated black lacquer (ishime), grey dry lacquer powder in two hues imitating inlays in pewter and tin foil. The design represents a fresh, intact pumpkin flower and two pumpkin leaves, one shiny and plump, the other brownish, rotten. The inside of the box is coated in black semi-matte black lacquer with a greasy, waxy look.

Gollum is one of the most loved and hated characters of Middle-Earth, created by the writer J.R.R. Tolkien in the ‘50s of the last century. In “The Hobbit”, the novel written before “The Lord of The Rings”, he wasn’t one of the main characters. Tolkien must have understood his potential because, in his best-known novel, he not only gave him a starring role, but he became part of Fantasy history. Gollum appears in several films and radio adaptations of “The Lord of The Rings”. In 1952 Tolkien himself was one of the first to give his voice to Gollum: his interpretation was highly appreciated by the critics. In the trilogy of Peter Jackson, Gollum is a computer-generated character and his voice and moves were performed by the actor Andy Serkis (a polyhedric actor, who gave his moves to King Kong too as well as to the monkey Cesare in the last remake of “The Planet of the Apes”). The character was created following the facial features of Serkis, while his moves were reproduced using a mix between motion capture and the traditional process of keyframing. 

Fun fact – For his performance, Serkis won “best virtual performance” at the MTV Movie Awards. Serkies declared that the desperation and avarice in his acting was based on the experience of heroin addicts. 

The movie “Spider-Man” is inspired to the homonymous comic books by Marvel, created by the imagination of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. It is considered to be one of the best amongst the superhero fiction movies. The movie by Sam Raimi in 2002 was number 3 at the box office. For this reason, other sequels were made in 2004 and in 2007. In 2021, Columbia Pictures produced “The amazing Spiderman”, a revisitation of the previous movies, not linked to the original trilogy. 

Fun fact – Wolverine and Spider-Man together at the cinema. Dream or reality? We came close: during film production, in one of the scenes these two superheroes should have been together. Said cameo appearance was confirmed by Hugh Jackman during an interview, but then the idea was abandoned. What a pity!

Accurate reproduction of Billy the Puppet of “Saw”: creepy as much as the original one, along with the red tricycle. The movie arrived at the cinema with the filmmaker James Wan seventeen years ago. “Saw” is one of the horror movies that has generated more sequels: the ninth movie “Spiral” is coming out and they’re already working on the tenth movie. Amidst traps, tortures, Machiavellian deceits, and a lot, a lot, of blood, Jigsaw, alias John Kramer, inflicts awful punishments to people that, in his opinion, have not appreciated the gift of life. The first movie had such an original plot that the audience loved it and it became big success. JigSaw uses Billy the Puppet to send messages to his victims in the game. 

Fun fact – Saw includes references to the master of Italian horror, the filmmaker Dario Argento: Billy the Puppet is in fact inspired to the scary doll of the movie “Profondo Rosso”/ “The Hatchet Murders”. Furthermore, the black gloves worn by Saw are one of the typical elements of Dario Argento’s movies, they can be found in nearly all of his films.

The Balrogs are creatures of Arda, a fictional fantasy universe created by the writer J.R.R. Tolkien. They are Maiar seduced by Morgoth, The Evil Principle, the first Dark Lord of Middle-Earth. Such as Sauron, they were the most powerful servants of Middle-Earth. In Sindarin, Balrog means literally “demon of might”, while in Quenya they are called Valaraukar, with the same meaning. They appeared in “Lord of the Rings”.

The statue reproduces the protagonist of the homonymous film by James Cameron released in 1984. He is the killer cyborg, sent back in time, from 2029 to 1984, to kill Sarah Connor, whose son, in a post-apocalyptic future, is destined to save humans from machines. When the film hit the big screen, it was critically acclaimed and was a steppingstone to the career of then-young Arnold Schwarzenegger who plays the cyborg. The success was such that it inspired several sequels, comics, novels and video games. In 2008 Terminator was selected by the United States Library of Congress for retention in the National Film Registry.

Fun fact: To get into the role better, Schwarzenegger purposely avoided Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor) and Michael Biehn (Kyle Reese) on set, in order to not have any kind of relationship and to feel positive emotions towards the characters who (in the film!) he had been sent to kill.

The statue portrays Alien, the monster from the homonymous film directed by Ridley Scott, which, when it was released in theatres in 1979, shocked the spectators, disturbed by the special effects, also signed by the Italian master Carlo Rambaldi, and revolutionised the very concept of horror and science fiction films. Not totally science fiction, not completely horror, “Alien” represents the beginning of a new path of interpretation of the ancestral fears of the contemporary man.

Curiosity: Alien's screenwriter, Dan O'Bannon, drew inspiration from an Italian film for his story. It all started with the short story "A night of 21 hours" by Renato Prestiniero, which became a film in 1965 directed by Mario Bava as "Planet of the Vampires".
 

The statue reproduces the original costume of Darth Vader (in Italian Dart Fener), the villain of "Star Wars", a series of films created by director George Lucas. On the base of the statue there is the original signature of David Prowse, the actor who played the role. Star Wars is one of the most famous film sagas, starting with the movie “Star Wars - Episode IV. A new hope "(1977). The other two titles of the first trilogy are: “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Return of the Jedi” (1983). In 1999 Lucas shot a prequel trilogy. The titles are "The Phantom Menace" (1999), "Attack of the Clones" (2002) and "Revenge of the Sith" (2005). The Walt Disney Company in 2012 bought the rights of the entire series and started the production of a new trilogy. This sequel is about what happens after the last episode of the original trilogy of 1977. And here are the titles: “The Awakening of the Force” (2015), “The Last Jedi” (2017) and “The Rise of Skywalker” (2019). The films became a cultural phenomenon that has influenced several generations, and which continues to thrill both adults and children, from 1977 to today.

Fun fact – When Luke Skywalker jumps into space to save himself from Darth Vader, in the movie “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), he doesn’t actually scream. In the remastered version of 1997, they added the sound effect of the scream. This was not appreciated by the fans due to the fact that Luke not screaming emphasized that he didn’t fear death. In the following versions, the scream was removed and this detail remains solely in the version of 1997.

On April 27, 1837, Nicolò Paganini wrote his will with his own hand. The three pages of dense writing are enclosed in an envelope sealed with sealing wax and are then delivered to the Royal Senate to be inserted among public documents to be validated. Among other provisions, the violinist establishes: "I bind my violin to the city of Genoa so that it is perpetually preserved". Thus the famous Cannone was donated to the Municipality and is now preserved in the collections of Palazzo Tursi.

The most important cartographer in the service of the Republic of Genoa, Matteo Vinzoni (1690-1773), born in Montaretto near Bonassola, represents here, with essential and highly elegant features, the territory of “Cinque Terre” between Monterosso and Riomaggiore. The description of the territory, a central element for the political, military, economic and social activities of a state, is affirmed in Genoa quite late compared to other Italian realities, but experience a great development with the activity of Colonel Vinzoni, who takes care of the details of its representations through patrols on the territory, to have a first-hand knowledge of it. The current size of the cartographic collection is about 8788 units, between the first representations of the late fifteenth century and the end of the twentieth century. The collection can be consulted on the Topographia website:
http://www.topographia.it/DFrontofficeGe/index.htm;jsessionid=30B99F2DA1ABBAC5F516DFD40D15661E