Vertu is a loosely defined category of objects of art appealing to curiosity or to an interest in the Western classical era. Examples of Vertu might include Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 and Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 antiquities, classical sculpture, or particularly fine science-related collections (eg., minerals or biological specimens). Collection of Vertu was fashionable among certain aristocrats and royalty at the close of the 18th century, and the term was sometimes used metaphorically; devoted collector Sir William Hamilton

William Hamilton (diplomat)

Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800...

 was said to have at one point described Emma Hamilton, then his mistress and noted for her pantomimes of certain works of art, as a fine "piece of modern vertu."