Three plaster fragments from Pompeii, collected by William Ewart Lockhart

Three small fragments of plaster with red, blue and green decorations.  Taken by William Ewart Lockhart in the late 19th century from the ruins of Pompeii, Italy as a souvenir of his visit, a common practice amongst Victorian travellers.  Pompeii was a rich city of the Roman empire that was completely buried by pyroclastic flow from the Volcano Versuvius in 79AD.  It was rediscovered in 1748 and has been slowly excavated by archaeologists ever since.