Love visiting this museum
The Great Bed of Ware
At the end of this year's trip to the UK my flight out of London was cancelled and I found that I had 2 extra days in the city. I decided that I would revisit some favourite sites and that included the V&A museum in Kensington. I have been to the museum on several occasions usually for one of their special exhibitions such as the Christian Dior one
and previous to that Alexander MacQueen.
I was a few days too early for this year's fashion exhibit so I wandered through the museum heading to my favourite gallery, the jewellery gallery.
Normally when I enter the museum I walk straight ahead and through the gift shop and then turn right. On this occasion I turned left after the entrance and explored the side of the museum I hadn't been through.
I discovered this huge bed called the 'Great Bed of Ware' the bed is 3 metres across and apparently can fit 4 couples! It was built in 1590 as a tourist attraction for an inn in Ware, the town of Ware was a good halfway stopping spot for travellers going from London to Cambridge. The innkeepers came up with the idea of this huge bed as a novelty to attract customers to their inn.
The galleries on this side of the museum held examples of textiles through the years.
As well as the displays, many of the galleries were works of art and just beautiful to see.
With the introduction of tea to the British Isles came a whole new decorative art, that of teapots and teasets.
Ornately decorated furniture with inlays.
Snuff boxes
At the same time I was looking at these snuff boxes, there were 2 young women looking at them. Having read that the boxes were snuff boxes they asked each other, what was snuff? I explained how people would sniff tobacco they carried in these boxes, their response was 'eww!'
A decorated hallway
I eventually made it round to the jewellery gallery, it's called the William and Judith Bollinger gallery as they donated the money for the gallery. Much later they also bought this sapphire coronet from the Earl of Harewood and donated it to the museum.
The coronet (it's very small, so not a tiara) was designed by Prince Albert as a gift for Queen Victoria, it's quite flexible to can be opened up or closed to a complete circle. Nearby there's a painting of the young Victoria wearing the coronet around the bun in her hair.
There are other tiaras in the gallery, some are on loan and one was surrendered to HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and given to the V&A in 2007. That particular tiara is the Manchester tiara.
The Manchester tiara
The Manchester tiara was made by Cartier to the order of Consuelo who was wealthy in her own right, but was married off to the impoverished but titled Duke of Manchester. The tiara was made in 1903 and Consuelo provided all the diamonds for it.
The Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava's tiara.
These rather impressive tiaras are still owned by the Londonderry family and are on loan to the V&A. The tiara on the left is made from diamonds set in silver and was made in 1885. The impressive amethyst stoned tiara is made from amethysts given as a gift to Frances Anne, wife of the third Marquess of Londonderry, in 1821 by Tsar Alexander I of Russia. The stones were mounted on a tiara in 1916.
Napoleonic jewels
The emeralds on the left were part of a suite given by Napoleon to his adopted daughter Stéphanie de Beauharnais on the occasion of her wedding to the heir of the Grand Duke of Baden in 1806.
The ruby spray was made for the Empress Josephine around 1809 and was eventually mounted on a brooch, it was inherited by the family of her son Eugène.
An orchid hair ornament
Bow brooches
I added these last 2 simply because I like them, Bow brooches were very popular in the Victorian era and right up until the early 20th century, it seems just about every royal or aristocratic family had variations of bow brooches.
The V&A is free to enter, it has different galleries to explore, depending on your interests. The special exhibitions normally have an entry fee.
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