The English Rooms at the V&A are a great place to visit if you're interested in English period furniture- they have whole room reconstructions, with huge canopied beds- or if you're a textile obsessive like me.There are quite a few items of clothing, with shoes and gloves too; just so much you want a photographic record of really!
Anyway, we spotted this beautiful and fragile fan.... I have a thing about fans......
Oh, and whole cases of drawers of lace!! Most are so ridiculously beautiful it's like a sort of appreciation overload!! This one is in a 17th century style which has the name "stitches in the air" when translated from Italian:-
And how about this one- apologies for the difficulty in photographing such a tiny, delicate fragment. This one is very different! Guess what it's made of... and I'll tell you at the bottom of the page :0)
Following our noses round the museum we came to a section on mosaics, and in particular a fabulous (in the original sense of the word) collection of two people whose names I'm sorry to say I've forgotten. Drawer upon drawer of priceless treasures; silver and gold and jewel encrusted snuff boxes. Here are just a few of the most astonishing works of art in "micro-mosaic" - these boxes are all no bigger than 3" across.
(Enamelled, with pearls)
And the lace from 16 Something?? Give yourself a million Clever Clogs points if you guessed it was made from human hair (with outline detailing probably horse hair) Yes, really!!!!!
Hope you've enjoyed a quick trip round the museum with me. TaTa For Now,
Ruth xx
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