Interiors: Here is how to create your very own curiosity cabinet

This can be a space for precious childhood postcards, flea market finds, or mementoes of a blustery day on the beach

Penny Byrne, a design specialist with Neptune advises, 'Open the door occasionally to spend time with your collection. Rearrange it regularly.' Neptune Chawton, €6220, neptune.com for stockists

Where did the whole business of the curiosity cabinet start? Waggling a Beswick china terrier, docked of its tail to the front of my animal amputee ward, I became genuinely curious. I took a swan-dive into the respectable articles of the Sotheby’s Institute online and was whisked back to the 16th century.

 Art historian, author and curator Giovanni Aloi describes the beginnings of the practice as “the aristocrat’s answer for those who sought to enliven the opulent but dimly lit parties thrown during the Italian Renaissance. They ranged in size, from as small as a dedicated piece of furniture with multiple drawers or could stretch to the size of an entire room. Every object offered an opportunity to tell a story about an epic adventure or, more often, to fabricate one.