29 November 2012

London Part 3

Saturday morning and all was quiet in the Medieval Galleries at the V&A museum.

Unfortunately at this point my camera picked up some dust. 
Classy, civilised and well educated dust maybe, but a pain in the *** dust. 
Please excuse  any “shadows”.

V&A London british galleries 10

Below are two small items which caught my eye for their shape, colour, design and pure craftsmanship.
Who wore them?  Where did they go?  What did they see and hear?

V&A London british galleries 8

Fastener 500-700 CE. Silver, partial gilded, with garnets. Northern France.

V&A London british galleries 9

The Milton Brooch 600-700CE. 
Gold, silver, bronze, garnets and shells.  England.

V&A London 2q

Tunics; Childs 450-650, Adults 670-870. 
Linen and wool, Egypt.

One and a half THOUSAND years old.
Mind blowing to see textiles of such an age and in such good condition.
I stood and looked for quite a while.

The next room I found by mistake as I was trying to get from A>B (as it turns out I couldn’t as it was locked and had to go via C,D Z and E).
Its the only room I loved and hated in equal measure.

V&A London 20

This is the National Art Library. 
Such wonderful old books looking totally wrong with the modern art.
And so totally untouchable.
My fingers were itching to open these.

I wanted to set up a home in here and start at one end and keep reading until I grew old!  (I know another blogger who would probably agree with me, actually no doubt she would!)
You can access the catalogue here.

V&A London 19

From books back to textiles and costumes.

V&A London british galleries 4

Spitafields Silk. 
I give a talk on the “Story of Silk” and have always been intrigued by this exotic fabric. 
More information here
Excuse the light, it was very, very dark in this room. 
No, that's not quite true.  It was very, very, very ,very dark.

V&A London british galleries 5

Burse for the Great Seal of England. 1560-1600.
Silk velvet with applied linen canvas, embroidered in silver and silver gilt, silk, sequins and beads.

This piece of embroidery has long been a favourite and despite the very dark conditions I wanted to get a photo.
Of all the textiles in the museum this is THE piece of embroidery I would take home.
It would look good in my red/gold sitting room.

Elizabeth I might even have handled this. 
What tales could this item tell?

A better photograph is available here.

That's its for the V&A, for now.
But all being well I’ll be back in the spring to see this.

2 comments:

  1. Why is the silk room so dark? Are people allowed to read the books in the Art Library? I think that I would be so distracted by the books, that the art would be ignored.

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  2. Anonymous8:52 pm

    Fascinating Egyptian tunics. But last month, I saw clothing and stitches that were 5000 years old!
    Went to the museum in Bolzano, Italy where they keep Oetzi the iceman.
    Loves the city and the museum. Go first thing in the morning and avoid the crowds.

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