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105-595: In 1865, Tiffany traveled to Europe, and in London he visited the Victoria and Albert Museum , whose extensive collection of Roman and Syrian glass made a deep impression on him. He admired the coloration of medieval glass and was convinced that the quality of contemporary glass could be improved upon because the production of art glass in America during this time was not close to what Europeans were creating. In his own words,

210-402: A catering service. The official opening by Queen Victoria was on 20 June 1857. In the following year, late-night openings were introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting . In the words of museum director Cole gas lighting was introduced "to ascertain practically what hours are most convenient to the working classes". To raise interest for the museum among the target audience ,

315-440: A 3-dimensional effect to flowing robes and angel wings, and to imitate the natural coarseness of magnolia petals. The making of drapery glass requires skill and experience. A small diameter hand-held roller is manipulated forcefully over a sheet of molten glass to produce heavy ripples, while folding and creasing the entire sheet. The ripples become rigid and permanent as the glass cools. Each sheet produced from this artisanal process

420-657: A canteen, first for the Royal Air Force and later for Bomb Damage Repair Squads. Before the return of the collections after the war, the Britain Can Make It exhibition was held between September and November 1946, attracting nearly a million-and-a-half visitors. This was organised by the Council of Industrial Design , established by the British government in 1944 "to promote by all practicable means

525-453: A complex history, with piecemeal additions by different architects. Founded in May 1852, it was not until 1857 that the museum moved to its present site. This area of London, previously known as Brompton , had been renamed 'South Kensington'. The land was occupied by Brompton Park House , which was extended, most notably by the "Brompton Boilers", which were starkly utilitarian iron galleries with

630-534: A dormer window dated 1523–1535 from the chateau of Montal. There are several examples from Italian Renaissance buildings including, portals, fireplaces, balconies and a stone buffet that used to have a built-in fountain. The main architecture gallery has a series of pillars from various buildings and different periods, for example, a column from the Alhambra . Examples covering Asia are in those galleries concerned with those countries, as well as models and photographs in

735-515: A few paintings, scrolls and screens, textiles and dress including kimono are some of the objects on display. One of the finest objects displayed is Suzuki Chokichi's bronze incense burner ( koro ) dated 1875, standing at over 2.25 metres high and 1.25 metres in diameter it is also one of the largest examples made. The museum also holds some cloisonné pieces from the Japanese art production company, Ando Cloisonné . The smaller galleries cover Korea,

840-682: A husband and wife painted in watercolour on silk date from the 18th century. There is a unique Chinese lacquerware table , made in the imperial workshops during the reign of the Xuande Emperor in the Ming dynasty . Examples of clothing are also displayed. One of the largest objects is a bed from the mid-17th century. The work of contemporary Chinese designers is also displayed. The Toshiba gallery of Japanese art opened in December 1986. The majority of exhibits date from 1550 to 1900, but one of

945-424: A major £150m renovation programme, called the "FuturePlan". The plan involves redesigning all the galleries and public facilities in the museum that have yet to be remodelled. This is to ensure that the exhibits are better displayed, more information is available, access for visitors is improved, and the museum can meet modern expectations for museum facilities. A planned Spiral building was abandoned; in its place

1050-750: A marketing strategy in order for his business to thrive. In 1932, Tiffany Studios filed for bankruptcy. Ownership of the complex passed back to the original owners of the factory — the Roman Bronze Works — which had served as a subcontractor to Tiffany for many years." John Polachek , founder of the General Bronze Corporation —who had worked at the Tiffany Studios earlier— purchased the Roman Bronze Works (the old Tiffany Studios). General Bronze then became

1155-571: A milky white edge or raised pattern on colored pressed glass. Reheating sections during the cooling process turns them white, creating a decorative effect. This method was employed by various companies, including Barolac in Bohemia, Joblings in England, and Val St Lambert in Belgium. The third type involves hand-blown glass with two layers, containing heat-reactive components like bone ash. The glass

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1260-739: A new Exhibition Road Quarter designed by Amanda Levete 's AL_A was created. It features a new entrance on Exhibition Road , a porcelain-tiled courtyard (inaugurated in 2017 as the Sackler Courtyard and renamed the Exhibition Road Courtyard in 2022) and a new 1,100-square-metre underground gallery space (the Sainsbury Gallery) accessed through the Blavatnik Hall. The Exhibition Road Quarter project provided 6,400 square metres of extra space, which

1365-538: A new medieval gallery on the ground floor (now the shop, opened in 2006). Then the lower ground-floor galleries in the south-west part of the museum were redesigned, opening in 1978 to form the new galleries covering Continental art 1600–1800 (late Renaissance, Baroque through Rococo and neo-Classical). In 1974 the museum had acquired what is now the Henry Cole wing from the Royal College of Science . To adapt

1470-495: A pattern of glass strings, and irregularly shaped, thin glass wafers, affixed to its surface. Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, twigs, branches and grass, and distant foliage. The process is as above except that both streamers and fractures are applied to sheet glass during the rolling process. Ring mottle glass refers to sheet glass with a pronounced mottle created by localized, heat-treated opacification and crystal-growth dynamics. Ring mottle glass

1575-411: A place in contemporary work when abstract patterns are desired. Ripple glass refers to textured glass with marked surface waves. Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, water or leaf veins. The texture is created during the glass sheet-forming process. A sheet is formed from molten glass with a roller that spins on itself while travelling forward. Normally the roller spins at

1680-414: A proper façade. In 1890 the government launched a competition to design new buildings for the museum, with architect Alfred Waterhouse as one of the judges; this would give the museum a new imposing front entrance. The main façade, built from red brick and Portland stone , stretches 720 feet (220 m) along Cromwell Gardens and was designed by Aston Webb after winning a competition in 1891 to extend

1785-411: A sheet of glass with a pattern of glass strings affixed to its surface. Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, twigs, branches and grass. Streamers are prepared from very hot molten glass, gathered at the end of a punty (pontil) that is rapidly swung back and forth and stretched into long, thin strings that rapidly cool and harden. These hand-stretched streamers are pressed on

1890-437: A solution of silver nitrate is superficially applied, turning red glass to orange and blue glass to green. Some opalescent glass was used by several stained glass studios in England from the 1860s and 1870s onwards, notably Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Its use became increasingly common. Opalescent glass is the basis for the range of glasses created by Tiffany. In addition opalescent glass comes in three main types. The first type

1995-588: A temporary look and were later dismantled and used to build the V&;A Museum of Childhood. The first building to be erected that still forms part of the museum was the Sheepshanks Gallery in 1857 on the eastern side of the garden. Its architect was civil engineer Captain Francis Fowke , Royal Engineers , who was appointed by Cole. The next major expansions were designed by the same architect,

2100-451: A £20 million refurbishment. The V&A's collection of Art from Asia numbers more than 160,000 objects, one of the largest in existence. It has one of the world's most comprehensive and important collections of Chinese art whilst the collection of South Asian Art is the most important in the West. The museum's coverage includes pieces from South and South East Asia, Himalayan kingdoms, China,

2205-551: Is a branch of the museum, and a new branch in London – V&A East – is being planned. The first V&A museum outside London, V&A Dundee opened on 15 September 2018. The Victoria and Albert Museum has its origins in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Henry Cole was the museum's first director, he was also involved in the planning. Initially the V&A was known as the Museum of Manufactures . The first opening to

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2310-405: Is also on display. The Far Eastern collections include more than 70,000 works of art from the countries of East Asia: China, Japan and Korea. The T. T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese art opened in 1991, displaying a representative collection of the V&As approximately 16,000 objects from China, dating from the 4th millennium BC to the present day. Though the majority of artworks on display date from

2415-485: Is amongst the finest in the world, many were part of the Salting Bequest of 1909. Examples of tile work from various buildings including a fireplace dated 1731 from Istanbul made of intricately decorated blue and white tiles and turquoise tiles from the exterior of buildings from Samarkand are also displayed. The museum's collections of South and South-East Asian art are the most comprehensive and important in

2520-414: Is blown into a mold with a raised pattern, and reheating turns the heat-sensitive glass milky white, creating a contrasting silhouette against the clear background (for more information [1] ). Tiffany patented Favrile glass in 1892. Favrile glass often has a distinctive characteristic that is common in some glass from Classical antiquity: it possesses a superficial iridescence . This iridescence causes

2625-541: Is displayed, as are carpets from Agra and Lahore . Examples of clothing are also displayed. In 1879–80, the collections of the defunct East India Company 's India Museum were transferred to the V&A and the British Museum. Items in the collection include Tipu's Tiger , an 18th-century automaton created for Tipu Sultan , the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore . The personal wine cup of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan

2730-431: Is exemplified by blue-tinged semi-opaque or clear glass with milky opalescence in the center, seen in creations by Lalique, Sabino, and Jobling's. This effect is achieved through slower cooling, causing crystallization. The glass glows golden when backlit and a beautiful blue when front-lit. Many French companies in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Lalique and Sabino, produced opalescent art deco pieces. The second type features

2835-736: Is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , in an area known as " Albertopolis " because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial , and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum , the Science Museum , the Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College London . The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by

2940-552: Is the largest expansion at the museum in over 100 years. It opened on 29 June 2017. In March 2018, it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge would become the first royal patron of the museum. On 15 September 2018, the first V&A museum outside London, V&A Dundee , opened. The museum, built at a cost of £80.11m, is located on Dundee's waterfront, and is focused on Scottish design, furniture, textiles, fashion, architecture, engineering and digital design. Although it uses

3045-425: Is unique. In order to cut streamer, fracture or ripple glass, the sheet may be scored on the side without streamers, fractures or ripples with a carbide glass cutter, and broken at the score line with breaker-grozier pliers . In order to cut drapery glass, the sheet may be placed on styrofoam , scored with a carbide glass cutter, and broken at the score line with breaker-grozier pliers, but a bandsaw or ringsaw are

3150-605: The Corona section of Queens from 1901 to 1932. Today, the Louis Tiffany School or New York City's P.S. (public school) 110Q , is now built on the old site. The closing of the factory has been a matter of some controversy. Tiffany's glass fell out of favor in the 1910s, and by the 1920s a foundry had been installed for a separate bronze company. Tiffany's leadership and talent, as well as his father's money and old firm allowed Tiffany to relaunch Tiffany studios as

3255-652: The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport . As with other national British museums, entrance is free. The V&A covers 12.5 acres (5.1 ha) and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient history to the present day, from the cultures of Europe , North America , Asia and North Africa . However, the art of antiquity in most areas is not collected. The holdings of ceramics , glass, textiles, costumes , silver, ironwork , jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking , drawings and photographs are among

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3360-541: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco ), returning to London in 1999. To accompany and support the exhibition, the museum published a book, Grand Design , which it has made available for reading online on its website. The opening ceremony for the Aston Webb building by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra took place on 26 June 1909. In 1914 the construction commenced of the Science Museum , signaling

3465-544: The Heritage Lottery Fund . The Exhibition Road Quarter opened in 2017, with a new entrance providing access for visitors from Exhibition Road . A new courtyard, the Sackler Courtyard, has been created behind the Aston Webb Screen, a colonnade built in 1909 to hide the museum's boilers. The colonnade was kept but the wall in the lower part was removed in the construction to allow public access to

3570-683: The Himalayan kingdoms and South East Asia. Korean displays include green-glazed ceramics, silk embroideries from officials' robes and gleaming boxes inlaid with mother-of-pearl made between 500 AD and 2000. Himalayan works include important early Nepalese bronze sculptures, repoussé work and embroidery. Tibetan art from the 14th to the 19th century is represented by 14th- and 15th-century religious images in wood and bronze, scroll paintings and ritual objects. Art from Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka in gold, silver, bronze, stone, terracotta and ivory represents these rich and complex cultures,

3675-580: The Ming and Qing dynasties, there are objects dating from the Tang dynasty and earlier periods, among them a metre-high bronze head of the Buddha dated to about 750 AD, and one of the oldest works, a 2000-year-old jade horse head from a burial. Other sculptures include life-size tomb guardians. Classic examples of Chinese decorative arts on displayt include Chinese lacquer , silk, Chinese porcelain , jade and cloisonné enamel. Two large ancestor portraits of

3780-554: The Mughal Empire and the Maratha Empire , including fine portraits of the emperors and other paintings and drawings, jade wine cups and gold spoons inset with emeralds, diamonds and rubies, also from this period are parts of buildings such as a jaali and pillars. India was a large producer of textiles, from dyed cotton chintz , muslin to rich embroidery work using gold and silver thread, coloured sequins and beads

3885-588: The Uroboros name. Following this, the Uroboros Glass company was sold by Oceanside Glass & Tile in 2019 to Connelsville, Pennsylvania based Youghiogheny Opalescent Glass, Inc. Additionally, Youghiogheny Opalescent Glass took over licensing and production of Uroboros' highly regarded System 96 brand as well. 45°32′18″N 122°40′20″W  /  45.53844°N 122.67224°W  / 45.53844; -122.67224 This article related to

3990-400: The "Rich tones are due in part to the use of pot metal full of impurities, and in part to the uneven thickness of the glass, but still more because the glass maker of that day abstained from the use of paint". Tiffany was an interior designer , and in 1878 his interest turned toward the creation of stained glass , when he opened his own studio and glass foundry because he was unable to find

4095-439: The British progressive folk-rock band Gryphon , who explored the lineage of medieval music and instrumentation and related how those contributed to contemporary music 500 years later. This innovative approach to bringing young people to museums was a hallmark of the directorship of Sir Roy Strong and was subsequently emulated by some other British museums. In the 1980s Strong renamed the museum as "The Victoria and Albert Museum,

4200-602: The Far East and the Islamic world. The V&A holds over 19,000 objects from the Islamic world, ranging from the early Islamic period (the 7th century) to the early 20th century. The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, opened in 2006, houses a representative display of 400 objects with the highlight being the Ardabil Carpet , the centrepiece of the gallery. The displays in this gallery cover objects from Spain, North Africa,

4305-547: The Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world. Overall, it is one of the largest museums in the world. Since 2001 the museum has embarked on a major £150m renovation programme. The new European galleries for the 17th century and the 18th century were opened on 9 December 2015. These restored the original Aston Webb interiors and host the European collections 1600–1815. The Young V&A in east London

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4410-631: The Middle East, Central Asia and Afghanistan. A masterpiece of Islamic art is a 10th-century Rock crystal ewer . Many examples of Qur'āns with exquisite calligraphy dating from various periods are on display. A 15th-century minbar from a Cairo mosque with ivory forming complex geometrical patterns inlaid in wood is one of the larger objects on display. Extensive examples of ceramics especially Iznik pottery, glasswork including 14th-century lamps from mosques and metalwork are on display. The collection of Middle Eastern and Persian rugs and carpets

4515-479: The National Museum of Art and Design". Strong's successor Elizabeth Esteve-Coll oversaw a turbulent period for the institution in which the museum's curatorial departments were re-structured, leading to public criticism from some staff. Esteve-Coll's attempts to make the V&A more accessible included a criticised marketing campaign emphasising the café over the collection. In 2001 the museum embarked on

4620-614: The Royal College of Art. These are set in the columned screen wall designed by Aston Webb that forms the façade. A few galleries were redesigned in the 1990s including the Indian, Japanese, Chinese, ironwork, the main glass galleries, and the main silverware gallery, which was further enhanced in 2002 when some of the Victorian decoration was recreated. This included two of the ten columns having their ceramic decoration replaced and

4725-598: The Turner and Vernon galleries built in 1858–1859 to house the eponymous collections (later transferred to the Tate Gallery ) and now used as the picture galleries and tapestry gallery respectively. The North and South Courts were then built, both of which opened by June 1862. They now form the galleries for temporary exhibitions and are directly behind the Sheepshanks Gallery. On the very northern edge of

4830-590: The V&A has the main national collection. The Victoria & Albert Museum is split into four curatorial departments: Decorative Art and Sculpture; Performance, Furniture, Textiles and Fashion; Art, Architecture, Photography and Design; and Asia. The museum curators care for the objects in the collection and provide access to objects that are not currently on display to the public and scholars. The collection departments are further divided into sixteen display areas, whose combined collection numbers over 6.5  million objects, not all objects are displayed or stored at

4935-663: The V&A name, its operation and funding is independent of the V&A. The museum also runs the Young V&;A at Bethnal Green , which reopened on 1 July 2023; it used to run Apsley House , and also the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden . The Theatre Museum is now closed; the V&A Theatre Collections are now displayed within the South Kensington building. Victorian parts of the building have

5040-509: The V&A. There is a repository at Blythe House , West Kensington, as well as annex institutions managed by the V&A, also the museum lends exhibits to other institutions. The following lists each of the collections on display and the number of objects within the collection. The museum has 145 galleries, but given the vast extent of the collections, only a small percentage is ever on display. Many acquisitions have been made possible only with

5145-408: The West comprising nearly 60,000 objects, including about 10,000 textiles and 6,000 paintings, the range of the collection is immense. The Jawaharlal Nehru gallery of Indian art , opened in 1991, contains art from about 500 BC to the 19th century. There is an extensive collection of sculptures, mainly of a religious nature, Hindu , Buddhist and Jain . The gallery is richly endowed with the art of

5250-593: The assistance of the National Art Collections Fund . In 2004, the V&A alongside Royal Institute of British Architects opened the first permanent gallery in the UK covering the history of architecture with displays using models, photographs, elements from buildings and original drawings. With the opening of the new gallery, the RIBA Drawings and Archives Collection has been transferred to

5355-481: The building as galleries, all the Victorian interiors except for the staircase were recast during the remodelling. To link this to the rest of the museum, a new entrance building was constructed on the site of the former boiler house, the intended site of the Spiral , between 1978 and 1982. This building is of concrete and very functional, the only embellishment being the iron gates by Christopher Hay and Douglas Coyne of

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5460-550: The collection includes parts of buildings, for example, the two top stories of the facade of Sir Paul Pindar 's house dated c. 1600 from Bishopsgate with elaborately carved woodwork and leaded windows, a rare survivor of the Great Fire of London , there is a brick portal from a London house of the English Restoration period and a fireplace from the gallery of Northumberland house. European examples include

5565-997: The collection. The RIBA's holdings of over 330 drawings by Andrea Palladio are the largest in the world; other Europeans well represented are Jacques Gentilhatre and Antonio Visentini . British architects whose drawings, and in some cases models of their buildings, in the collection, include: Inigo Jones , Sir Christopher Wren , Sir John Vanbrugh , Nicholas Hawksmoor , William Kent , James Gibbs , Robert Adam , Sir William Chambers , James Wyatt , Henry Holland , John Nash , Sir John Soane , Sir Charles Barry , Charles Robert Cockerell , Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin , Sir George Gilbert Scott , John Loughborough Pearson , George Edmund Street , Richard Norman Shaw , Alfred Waterhouse, Sir Edwin Lutyens , Charles Rennie Mackintosh , Charles Holden , Frank Hoar , Lord Richard Rogers , Lord Norman Foster , Sir Nicholas Grimshaw , Zaha Hadid and Alick Horsnell . As well as period rooms ,

5670-411: The courtyard. The new 1,200-square meter courtyard is the world's first all-porcelain courtyard, which is covered with 11,000 handmade porcelain tiles in fifteen different linear patterns glazed in different tone. A pavilion of Modernist design with glass walls and an angular roof covered with 4,300 tiles is located at the corner and contains a cafe. Skylights on the courtyard provide natural light for

5775-626: The death of Captain Francis Fowke of the Royal Engineers, the next architect to work at the museum was Colonel (later Major General) Henry Young Darracott Scott , also of the Royal Engineers. He designed to the northwest of the garden the five-storey School for Naval Architects (also known as the science schools), now the Henry Cole Wing, in 1867–72. Scott's assistant J. W. Wild designed the impressive staircase that rises

5880-548: The design for the range of buildings on the north and west sides of the garden. This includes the refreshment rooms, reinstated as the Museum Café in 2006, with the silver gallery above (at the time the ceramics gallery); the top floor has a splendid lecture theatre, although this is seldom open to the general public. The ceramic staircase in the northwest corner of this range of buildings was designed by F. W. Moody and has architectural details of moulded and coloured pottery. All

5985-471: The displays span the 6th to 19th centuries. Refined Hindu and Buddhist sculptures reflect the influence of India; items on the show include betel-nut cutters, ivory combs and bronze palanquin hooks. The museum houses the National Art Library , a public library containing over 750,000 books, photographs, drawings, paintings, and prints. It is one of the world's largest libraries dedicated to

6090-537: The elaborate painted designs restored on the ceiling. As part of the 2006 renovation the mosaic floors in the sculpture gallery were restored—most of the Victorian floors were covered in linoleum after the Second World War. After the success of the British Galleries, opened in 2001, it was decided to embark on a major redesign of all the galleries in the museum; this is known as "FuturePlan", and

6195-418: The end of a blowpipe. A large bubble is forcefully blown until the walls of the bubble rapidly stretch, cool and harden. The resulting glass bubble has paper-thin walls and is immediately shattered into shards. These hand blown shards are pressed on the surface of the molten glass sheet during the rolling process, to which they become permanently fused. Fracture-streamer glass refers to a sheet of glass with

6300-455: The enhancements to the main entrance and rotunda, the new shop, the tunnel and the sculpture galleries. Gareth Hoskins was responsible for contemporary and architecture, Softroom, Islamic Middle East and the Members' Room, McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA) were responsible for the new Cafe and designed the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries which opened in 2009. The central garden

6405-481: The façade of the museum were caused by fragments from the bombs. In the immediate post-war years, there was little money available for other than essential repairs. The 1950s and early 1960s saw little in the way of building work; the first major work was the creation of new storage space for books in the Art Library in 1966 and 1967. This involved flooring over Aston Webb's main hall to form the book stacks, with

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6510-548: The final split of the science and art collections. In 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War, most of the collection was sent to a quarry in Wiltshire , to Montacute House in Somerset, or to a tunnel near Aldwych tube station , with larger objects remaining in situ , sand-bagged and bricked in. Between 1941 and 1944 some galleries were used as a school for children evacuated from Gibraltar . The South Court became

6615-517: The full height of the building. Made from Cadeby stone, the steps are 7 feet (2.1 m) in length, while the balustrades and columns are Portland stone. It is now used to jointly house the prints and architectural drawings of the V&A (prints, drawings, paintings and photographs) and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA Drawings and Archives Collections), and the Sackler Centre for arts education, which opened in 2008. Continuing

6720-531: The galleries as originally designed were white with restrained classical detail and mouldings, very much in contrast to the elaborate decoration of the Victorian galleries, although much of this decoration was removed in the early 20th century. The museum survived the Second World War with only minor bomb damage. The worst loss was the Victorian stained glass on the Ceramics Staircase, which was blown in when bombs fell nearby; pockmarks still visible on

6825-607: The gallery via stairs with lacquered tulipwood balustrades. The collecting areas of the museum are not easy to summarize, having evolved partly through attempts to avoid too much overlap with other national museums in London. Generally, the classical world of the West and the Ancient Near East is left to the British Museum, and Western paintings to the National Gallery , though there are all sorts of exceptions—for example, painted portrait miniatures , where

6930-407: The garden, built in 1877–1883. The exterior mosaic panels in the parapet were designed by Reuben Townroe, who also designed the plaster work in the library. Sir John Taylor designed the bookshelves and cases. This was the first part of the museum to have electric lighting. This completed the northern half of the site, creating a quadrangle with the garden at its centre, but left the museum without

7035-419: The general public was in May 1852 at Marlborough House . By September the collection had been transferred to Somerset House . At this stage, the collections covered both applied art and science. Several of the exhibits from the opening Exhibition were purchased by the museum to form the kernel of the V&A collection. By February 1854 discussions were underway to transfer the museum to the current site and

7140-423: The glass-making technique of ring mottle glass, which was invented by Tiffany Studios and lost when it closed in 1928. In 2017, the company's assets were sold to Oceanside Glass & Tile, based out of Carlsbad, California , The Portland facility stopped making sheets of glass by February 2017. following discovery of cadmium pollution near its site. Oceanside moved production to Tijuana, Mexico , and ended

7245-535: The idea of wide art education through the museum collections. This led to the transfer to the museum of the School of Design that had been founded in 1837 at Somerset House; after the transfer, it was referred to as the Art School or Art Training School, later to become the Royal College of Art which finally achieved full independence in 1949. From the 1860s to the 1880s the scientific collections had been moved from

7350-531: The improvement of design in the products of British industry". The success of this exhibition led to the planning of the Festival of Britain to be held in 1951. By 1948 most of the collections had been returned to the museum. In July 1973 as part of its outreach programme to young people, the V&A became the first museum in Britain to present a rock concert. The V&A presented a combined concert/lecture by

7455-463: The largest bronze fabricator in New York City formed through the merger of his own companies and Tiffany's Corona factory. Louis Tiffany subsequently died in 1933. The term "opalescent glass" is commonly used to describe glass where more than one color is present, being fused during the manufacture, as against flashed glass in which two colors may be laminated, or silver stained glass where

7560-538: The largest and most comprehensive in the world. The museum owns the world's largest collection of post- classical sculpture, with the holdings of Italian Renaissance sculpture being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world . The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork , while

7665-627: The main arch above the twin entrances, and Queen Victoria above the frame around the arches and entrance, sculpted by Alfred Drury . These façades surround four levels of galleries. Other areas designed by Webb include the Entrance Hall and Rotunda, the East and West Halls, the areas occupied by the shop and Asian Galleries, and the Costume Gallery. The interior makes much use of marble in the entrance hall and flanking staircases, although

7770-475: The main architecture gallery. In June 2022, the RIBA announced it would be terminating its 20-year partnership with the V&A in 2027, "by mutual agreement", ending the permanent architecture gallery at the museum. Artefacts will be transferred back to the RIBA's existing collections, with some rehoused at the institute's headquarters at 66 Portland Place building, set to become a new House of Architecture following

7875-478: The main entrance has an open work crown surmounted by a statue of fame, a feature of late Gothic architecture and a feature common in Scotland, but the detail is Classical. The main windows to the galleries are also mullioned and transomed, again a Gothic feature; the top row of windows are interspersed with statues of many of the British artists whose work is displayed in the museum. Prince Albert appears within

7980-441: The main museum site to various improvised galleries to the west of Exhibition Road . In 1893 the "Science Museum" had effectively come into existence when a separate director was appointed. Queen Victoria returned to lay the foundation stone of the Aston Webb building (to the left of the main entrance) on 17 May 1899. It was during this ceremony that the change of name from 'South Kensington Museum' to 'Victoria and Albert Museum'

8085-425: The molten surface of sheet glass during the rolling process, and become permanently fused. Fracture glass refers to a sheet of glass with a pattern of irregularly shaped, thin glass wafers affixed to its surface. Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, foliage seen from a distance. The irregular glass wafers, called fractures , are prepared from very hot, colored molten glass, gathered at

8190-502: The museum exhibited its collections on both applied art and science. The museum aimed to provide educational resources and thus boost the productive industry. In these early years the practical use of the collection was very much emphasised as opposed to that of " High Art " at the National Gallery and scholarship at the British Museum . George Wallis (1811–1891), the first Keeper of Fine Art Collection, passionately promoted

8295-524: The museum was renamed South Kensington Museum . In 1855 the German architect Gottfried Semper , at the request of Cole, produced a design for the museum, but it was rejected by the Board of Trade as too expensive. The current site was occupied by Brompton Park House, which was extended in 1857 to include the first refreshment rooms. The V&A was the first museum in the world to provide researchers and guests

8400-515: The museum's annual contemporary design showcase, the V&;A Village Fete , since 2005. In 2011 the V&A announced that London-based practice AL A had won an international competition to construct a gallery beneath a new entrance courtyard on Exhibition Road. Planning for the scheme was granted in 2012. It replaced the proposed extension designed by Daniel Libeskind with Cecil Balmond but abandoned in 2004 after failing to receive funding from

8505-565: The museum, architecture, V&A and RIBA reading rooms and stores, metalware, Members' Room, contemporary glass, and the Gilbert Bayes sculpture gallery; in 2005: portrait miniatures, prints and drawings, displays in Room 117, the garden, sacred silver and stained glass; in 2006: Central Hall Shop, Islamic Middle East, the new café, and sculpture galleries. Several designers and architects have been involved in this work. Eva Jiřičná designed

8610-443: The museum, joining the already extensive collection held by the V&A. With over 600,000 drawings, over 750,000 papers and paraphernalia, and over 700,000 photographs from around the world, together they form the world's most comprehensive architectural resource. Not only are all the major British architects of the last four hundred years represented, but many European (especially Italian) and American architects' drawings are held in

8715-467: The museum. Construction took place between 1899 and 1909. Stylistically it is a strange hybrid: although much of the detail belongs to the Renaissance , there are medieval influences at work. The main entrance, consisting of a series of shallow arches supported by slender columns and niches with twin doors separated by the pier, is Romanesque in form but Classical in detail. Likewise, the tower above

8820-491: The oldest pieces displayed is the 13th-century sculpture of Amida Nyorai. Examples of classic Japanese armour from the mid-19th century, steel sword blades ( Katana ), Inrō , lacquerware including the Mazarin Chest dated c1640 is one of the finest surviving pieces from Kyoto , porcelain including Imari , Netsuke , woodblock prints including the work of Andō Hiroshige , graphic works include printed books, as well as

8925-399: The planters and the water feature may be illuminated, and the surrounding façades lit to reveal details normally in shadow. Especially noticeable are the mosaics in the loggia of the north façade. In summer a café is set up in the southwest corner. The garden is also used for temporary exhibits of sculpture; for example, a sculpture by Jeff Koons was shown in 2006. It has also played host to

9030-424: The preferred. Informational notes Citations Further reading Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A ) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts , decorative arts and design , housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . The V&A

9135-491: The range of the museum's collections. Godfrey Sykes also designed the terracotta embellishments and the mosaic in the pediment of the North Façade commemorating the Great Exhibition, the profits from which helped to fund the museum. This is flanked by terracotta statue groups by Percival Ball . This building replaced Brompton Park House, which could then be demolished to make way for the south range. The interiors of

9240-453: The same speed as its own forward motion, much like a steam roller flattening tarmac, and the resulting sheet has a smooth surface. In the manufacture of rippled glass, the roller spins faster than its own forward motion. The rippled effect is retained as the glass cools. Drapery glass refers to a sheet of heavily folded glass that suggests fabric folds. Tiffany made abundant use of drapery glass in ecclesiastical stained glass windows to add

9345-428: The sculpture gallery. The north, east and west sides have herbaceous borders along the museum walls with paths in front which continues along the south façade. In the two corners by the north façade, there is planted an American Sweetgum tree. The southern, eastern and western edges of the lawns have glass planters which contain orange and lemon trees in summer, which are replaced by bay trees in winter. At night both

9450-647: The site is situated the Secretariat Wing; also built in 1862, this houses the offices and boardroom, etc. and is not open to the public. An ambitious scheme of decoration was developed for these new areas: a series of mosaic figures depicting famous European artists of the Medieval and Renaissance period. These have now been removed to other areas of the museum. Also started were a series of frescoes by Lord Leighton : Industrial Arts as Applied to War 1878–1880 and Industrial Arts Applied to Peace , which

9555-430: The stairwell and the exhibition space located below the courtyard created by digging 15m into the ground. The Sainsbury Gallery's column-less space at 1,100 square metres is one of the largest in the country, providing space for temporary exhibitions. The gallery can be assessed through the existing Western Range building where a new entrance to the Blavatnik Hall and the museum has been created, and visitors can descend into

9660-464: The study of fine and decorative arts. The library covers all areas and periods of the museum's collections with special collections covering illuminated manuscripts , rare books and artists' letters and archives. Uroboros Glass Uroboros Glass was an art glass manufacturer in Portland, Oregon . The company was founded by Eric Lovell in 1973. In the late sixties, Lovell had rediscovered

9765-422: The style of the earlier buildings, various designers were responsible for the decoration. The terracotta embellishments were again the work of Godfrey Sykes, although sgraffito was used to decorate the east side of the building designed by F. W. Moody. A final embellishment was the wrought iron gates made as late as 1885 designed by Starkie Gardner. These lead to a passage through the building. Scott also designed

9870-483: The surface to shimmer, but also causes a degree of opacity. This iridescent effect of the glass was obtained by mixing different colors of glass together while hot. Favrile glass is distinguished by brilliant or deeply toned colors, usually iridescent like the wings of certain American butterflies, the necks of pigeons and peacocks, the wing covers of various beetles . Louis C. Tiffany Streamer glass refers to

9975-502: The three refreshment rooms were assigned to different designers. The Green Dining Room (1866–68) was the work of Philip Webb and William Morris , and displays Elizabethan influences. The lower part of the walls is paneled in wood with a band of paintings depicting fruit and the occasional figure, with moulded plaster foliage on the main part of the wall and a plaster frieze around the decorated ceiling and stained-glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones . The Centre Refreshment Room (1865–77)

10080-404: The two Cast Courts (1870–73) to the southeast of the garden (the site of the "Brompton Boilers"); these vast spaces have ceilings 70 feet (21 m) in height to accommodate the plaster casts of parts of famous buildings, including Trajan's Column (in two separate pieces). The final part of the museum designed by Scott was the Art Library and what is now the sculpture gallery on the south side of

10185-475: The types of glass that he desired in interior decoration. His inventiveness both as a designer of windows and as a producer of the material with which to create them was to become renowned. Tiffany wanted the glass itself to transmit texture and rich colors and he developed a type of glass he called " Favrile ". The favrile, or "fabrile" glass was manufactured at the Tiffany factory located at 96–18 43rd Avenue in

10290-572: The work on the north range was designed and built in 1864–69. The style adopted for this part of the museum was Italian Renaissance ; much use was made of terracotta , brick and mosaic. This north façade was intended as the main entrance to the museum, with its bronze doors, designed by James Gamble and Reuben Townroe  [ Wikidata ] , having six panels, depicting Humphry Davy (chemistry); Isaac Newton (astronomy); James Watt (mechanics); Bramante (architecture); Michelangelo (sculpture); and Titian (painting); The panels thus represent

10395-493: Was created in consultation with the exhibition designers and masterplanners Metaphor . The plan is expected to take about ten years and was started in 2002. To date several galleries have been redesigned, notably, in 2002: the main Silver Gallery, Contemporary; in 2003: Photography, the main entrance, The Painting Galleries; in 2004: the tunnel to the subway leading to South Kensington tube station , new signage throughout

10500-424: Was designed by Sir Edward Poynter ; the lower part of its walls consist of blue and white tiles with various figures and foliage enclosed by wood panelling, while above there are large tiled scenes with figures depicting the four seasons and the twelve months, painted by ladies from the Art School then based in the museum. The windows are also stained glass; there is an elaborate cast-iron grill still in place. With

10605-492: Was designed in a Renaissance style by James Gamble. The walls and even the Ionic columns in this room are covered in decorative and moulded ceramic tile, the ceiling consists of elaborate designs on enamelled metal sheets and matching stained-glass windows, and the marble fireplace was designed and sculpted by Alfred Stevens and was removed from Dorchester House prior to that building's demolition in 1929. The Grill Room (1876–81)

10710-518: Was invented by Tiffany in the early 20th century. Tiffany's distinctive style exploited glass containing a variety of motifs such as those found in ring mottle glass, and he relied minimally on painted details. When Tiffany Studio closed in 1929–1930, the secret formula for making ring mottle glass was forgotten and lost. Ring mottle glass was re-discovered in the late sixties by Eric Lovell of Uroboros Glass . Traditionally used for organic details on leaves and other natural elements, ring mottles also find

10815-634: Was made public. Queen Victoria's address during the ceremony, as recorded in The London Gazette , ended: "I trust that it will remain for ages a Monument of discerning Liberality and a Source of Refinement and Progress." The exhibition which the museum organised to celebrate the centennial of the 1899 renaming, A Grand Design , first toured in North America from 1997 ( Baltimore Museum of Art , Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , Royal Ontario Museum , Toronto, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and

10920-517: Was redesigned by Kim Wilkie and opened as the John Madejski Garden on 5 July 2005. The design is a subtle blend of the traditional and modern: the layout is formal; there is an elliptical water feature lined in stone with steps around the edge which may be drained to use the area for receptions, gatherings or exhibition purposes. This is in front of the bronze doors leading to the refreshment rooms. A central path flanked by lawns leads to

11025-466: Was started but never finished. To the east of this were additional galleries, the decoration of which was the work of another designer, Owen Jones ; these were the Oriental Courts (covering India, China and Japan), completed in 1863. None of this decoration survives. Part of these galleries became the new galleries covering the 19th century, opened in December 2006. The last work by Fowke was

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