At Buckinghamshire County Museum, we are inputting our accession registers, and back in 1913 someone gave us a silver balsamena from Malta. In the intervening years, it's surely become one of the numerous objects which no longer have their numbers securely attached. But we've no idea what a Balsamena _is_? Top of the pole so far is a kind of vinaigrette (the bottle, not the carraige). The OED has failed us ... can you help? -- Pat Reynolds [log in to unmask] Keeper of Social History, Buckinghamshire County Museum "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time" (T. Prattchet)