Queen Victoria dedicated this Museum to her deceased husband Prince Albert. It was dedicated in 1852, has 2.8 million items in its collection and is the worlds largest museum of Applied Arts, Decorative Arts and Design. The museum origins were the great Exhibition in 1851 and the collection was housed in various places until 1857 when the current building was completed. The building itself is impressive and although its initial design was rejected due to the high cost. It is certainly a gem of a museum and we had a dandy of a time. We did stop in the cafe for a cup of tea. It turns out that this museum was the first museum to ever offer food and beverage to researchers and the public.
We took a bus on this chilly day
The Brits love their flower boxes
A very large Sardine can
The V&A is imposing
Prince Albert himself, no longer in a can...
A life sized wooden carving
Not looking too healthy
A huge portion of an old church
The scepter
This buff trident bearing man seemed out o place among the religious artifacts
Korean ceramics where the artist built up the shape and then carved out the design
A cast of the Horned Moses by Michelango around 1525. Horns were mis-translated from the word for rays. These rays were emanating from Moses when he came down from the Mount
These giant doors from 1425 were made from the original doors around 1867 when the European heads of State decided that to assist Museums with acquisitions, while still respecting the cultures that created the masterpieces, by setting up a system to make copies. These copies could either be plaster casts of the originals or electro-casts. Electro-casts use electricity to deposit a copper layer into a mold that would later be used to make copies
The Nymph of Fontainebleau copy. The original is housed in the Louvre
Yo, Dave! You are so famous, can we get an autograph?
Two different materials
The casting process explained
One half of the cast of Trajan's column
A small detail. This was like a scare crow, a wooden frame with a helmet and two sheilds
The dragon gets the raw deal once again
A wild story here. Ham Kyungah, a Korean Artist, smuggles pieces of this art into North Korea where anonymous embroiderers worked on the individual pieces. They were smuggled back out of North Korea and assembled into this piece. Big Smile, a North Korean Motto is front and center.
This Buddha fasted for six years trying to reach enlightenment
A gilded chicken
Peacocks
A mask for the Lizard King
So many emotions
Kimonos did not have pockets so these fancy items acted as pockets
The detail is amazing
Cicada
Netsuke is my favorite Japanese art form. These were toggles attached to the kimono so that things could be hung from the toggle
A fish and a squid Netsuke
My purse swallowed my boa
A mythical beastie
Owl you doing?
A metal pipe
A bit crooked
A selection of instruments from South Asia. I have never seen a few of these
Time for a cuppa
The dining areas are quite lavish
Sipping our tea and soaking in all the details
The building is a work of art in and of itself
These shells were used to make miniature silhouettes. Carve a little deeper and get to the underlyind brown color
A very beautiful patina
The frog princess? She does not have webbed feet
Some very cool iron work
A gate for a church
Very fine detail on the gate
The central dome
Plans for the building in the Buildings and Architecture hall
A scale model for a art piece
Man and dome
An Islamic building
Tile from a Cambodian building
Layers of glass gave this a 3-D effect
Another glass masterpiece
Glass is so versitile
Roman pieces 2000 years old
The railing is glass
Where the glass is at a different angle, the colors change
A mummy in glass panels
Back outside to see this golden BMW
This bus is a double decker
Passing many floral displays
Harrods!
An immense building
Halloween is coming!
Passing many fine buildings
Do they have a lift?
Another Rolls Royce
Motorcycles and bikes park here and just leave the lock behind
