THE VICTORIA & ALBERT:
MONARCH OF MUSEUMS
by
Bruce Burnett

London's Victoria and Albert Museum is the home of the world's greatest collection of applied art and design. Its galleries reflect centuries of achievement in such varied fields as ceramics, furniture, jewellery, metalwork, textiles and dress from all over the world.
Founded in 1852 as a Museum of Manufactures, it was moved five years later from Marlborough House in central London to the fields of Brompton, where it became known as the "South Kensington Museum."

The "V&A," as the museum is affectionately known in London, is not a museum of Victoriana. In 1899 Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the present building which was re-named "The Victoria and Albert Museum" in honor of the Queen and her late husband.

The V&A is one of the largest museums in the world, so more than one visit is required to do it justice. However, visitors on a rushed schedule are advised to concentrate on the five major galleries on the main floor of the museum. These are: The Medieval Treasury, The Raphael Cartoons, The Dress Collection, The Nehru Gallery of Indian Art and The Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art.

The museum's five most famous items which even the casual visitor shouldn't miss are: The Gloucester Candlestick, an acclaimed piece of medieval art made for the abbot of a Benedictine monastery in Gloucester in the early 12th century.

The Great Bed of Ware, a gigantic Elizabethan oak bed thought to have been made at the end of the 16th-century for the White Hart Inn at Ware in Hertfordshire. It is mentioned in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

The Ardabil Carpet takes its name from the shrine at Ardabil in Persia and was made in 1539-1540. It was brought to England in the late 1880s and was purchased by the museum in 1893 on the advice of William Morris, the famous Victorian designer.

Tippoo's Tiger is a painted wooden effigy of a tiger mauling a British soldier. It was made for Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore in India at the end of the 18th-century. It contains a miniature organ, probably of French manufacture, which simulates the tiger's roars as well as the groans of its victims.

Roubiliac's Statue of Handel was ordered for the London pleasure gardens at Vauxhall in 1738. It is one of the first statues of a living artist and is unusually informal in the way that it shows Handel in his dressing gown and with his shirt unbuttoned.

Visitors with more time should be sure to include the Henry Cole Wing of the Museum on their itinerary. The top floor is devoted to the Constable Collection. Presented to the nation in 1888 by Isabel, the artist's eldest daughter, it is the greatest collection of works by John Constable in the world.

One floor down on level five is The Print Room. Open to the general public, the Print Room offers over a million objects for special viewing upon request, including: designs, watercolors, prints, miniatures, wallpapers, posters, greeting cards, photographs, graphics, book illustrations and fashion plates. They are all objects which cannot be continuously displayed due to their sensitivity to light.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is located at Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London. The nearest Underground station is South Kensington on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines.
Website: http://www.vam.ac.uk/.

THE VICTORIA & ALBERT: MONARCH OF MUSEUMS
was first published by The Kelowna Capital News

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