If you want to test your knowledge of history to the limit, buy antiques. Which is what I did this morning.

This plate (glazed pottery, transfer printed, about 24cms across) is a fairly familar model. It was made in the later part of Queen Victoria’s reign and these commeratives most commonly depict Her Majesty at the time of her 1887 Jubilee. The better quailty versions would show scenes from her mighty Empire and were often coloured with a gilded edge.

Other figures commemorated include the Duke of Clarence, Disraeli, Gladstone and other notables of the day. The latter were typically monochrome.

What makes this unusual (for me anyway) is that I’ve never seen this subject before. Stanley I know of from broad-stroke schoolboy history and his name is usually linked with Livingstone. And of course immediately one wants to know who more about Dr Emin Bey the Emin Pacha Relief Expedition; would anyone like to tell me WITHOUT googling?