Before the advent of central heating, warmth was provided by open fires, braziers or solid-fuel stoves in the main living rooms of a house. To maintain a fire all day demands a certain level of skill - knowing when to add more fuel, when to poke the fire and when to leave it alone - and a range of specialist tools. Bellows like these were designed to add oxygen to a smouldering fire, encouraging it to burn more fiercely.

This pair of bellows is shaped like a lyre - a plucked stringed instrument used by the ancient Greeks - and is inlaid with tulipwood lines to simulate strings. There are holes in the front face of the bellows, and it has been suggested that real strings may once have been attached here. This seems unlikely, however, as there is no trace of a fret to raise the strings from the surface of the bellows, which would allow them to sound. The fine carving around the edges of the front surface indicates that these bellows would have been an expensive item when new and would have formed part of a fashionable interior.