A PENRITH museum is appealing for information about a mysterious120-year-old jar it has been given.

The 19th century piece is thought to have been made at Wetheriggs Pottery, at Clifton Dykes, near Penrith, and dates back to 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

It has been acquired by Penrith and Eden Museum and curators are keen for anyone with information to get in touch.

The brown jar is in the form of a tree trunk, showing stumps of trimmed branches, and displays the name of Wm Robinson, of Tirral, October 2 1897 on a white band around its centre.

The lid has similar stumps and a perched bird forms a means of lifting it off.

Staff at the museum are puzzled as they have not yet been able to find out anything about the William Robinson of Tirril who was the recipient of this jar.

It is though it could have been given to him as a birthday token or even a retirement gift - which would have been appropriate for a woodsman.

But a similar example elsewhere, which is also dated 1897, suggests may have been something to mark the royal event.

Anyone with information about the Victorian gentleman of Tirril , near Penrith, would be welcomed by the curators.

Email museum@ eden.gov.uk or call 01768 865105 with any information.

The museum, in Middlegate, is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sundays, between April and October, from 11am to 4pm. Admission is free.