V&A beauteous objects

This panel is one of a group that originally formed part of a large window in the chapel of St Afra in the convent of Seligenthal, near Landshut (north of Munich) in Germany. Ten of these panels are now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich. Ludmilla, Duchess of Bavaria, founded the abbey of Selingenthal in 1232 as a house for nuns of the Cistercian Order after her husband, Ludwig I of Kelheim, was assassinated. The convent and church were completed by 1259. The chapel of St Afra was added about fifty years later. We are not certain of the identity of the Agnes on the panel in the Victoria and Albert Museum. One of the Munich panels depicting a woman is inscribed DOMINA ELIZABET DUCISSA BAWARIE. She has been identified as Elizabeth, daughter of Henry XIII, Duke of Lower Bavaria. Elizabeth died as a nun in Seligenthal in 1314. She had a sister called Agnes (1254-1315), who was also a nun. But this Agnes had never married. Another Agnes was the daughter of the founder, Ludmilla. She was married to Otto II, Duke of Bavaria, and was grandmother to Elizabeth. She died in 1269 and was buried in the convent. But this was about 40 years before the panel was created. There is still another Agnes, daughter of Henry III of Silesia. She was the second wife of Otto III (1261-1312), the second duke of Lower Bavaria and son of the Henry XIII mentioned above. Agnes married Otto in 1309 and died in 1361. The panels must date after Elizabeth's birth, which was in 1258. Her death in 1314 may be the reason that the windows were commissioned. The chapel of St Afra was added about this time. If so, this suggests that the Agnes in the panel was the wife of Otto III. Alternatively, if the windows commemorate the foundress, Ludmilla, and her descendents, then the Agnes in this panel could be her daughter, Otto II's wife, who was buried in the convent in 1269. The inscription on the panel refers to Agnes as 'his wife', which indicates that there was once an accompanying panel of the husband. This would enable us to identify Agnes, but unfortunately it no longer survives.

This hanging is one of a group of four chintz panels of the same design which were acquired from Ashburnham Place in Sussex. They appear to have been cut to sizes suitable for use as bed-hangings. Another set of hangings from Ashburnham Place have the closely related designs embroidered in chain-stitch (IS.152-1953 and IS.155-1953). Both sets are divided between the V&A, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Calico Museum, Ahmedabad, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York.

These delicate flowers on wooden stalks would originally have been attached to a piece of painted fabric. The pointed ends of the wooden stalks would have been pushed through holes in the fabric to give a three-dimensional effect of lotus flowers floating on a pool. The monochrome flowers have six to eight petals and are cut flat from plain-woven fabric in pale red, pale blue and buff-coloured cotton and silk. Tufts of thread have been tied to the heads of some of the pegs to represent stamens. The textiles were recovered from the site of Miran on the eastern verge of the Taklimakan Desert in north-west China, where material was discovered at a Buddhist shrine abandoned in the 4th or 5th century. The site is part of an area of central Asia now called the Silk Road, comprising a series of overland trade routes that crossed Asia from China to Europe. The most notable item traded was silk. Camels and horses were used as pack animals and merchants passed the goods from oasis to oasis. The Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. While silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism entered China from India in this way. These textiles were brought back from central Asia by the explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943). The Victoria and Albert Museum has around 700 ancient and medieval textiles recovered from the Silk Road by Stein at the beginning of the 20th century. Some are silk, while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.

Object TypeA vast array of royal commemorative objects was made on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. Historical AssociationsFollowing the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria shunned public life to a great extent. She never again lived in London and occupied Buckingham Palace only for occasional visits lasting a few days. However, the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne in 1887 was marked with great celebration, and the Queen was cheered by hundreds of thousands of her subjects as she travelled to a special service at Westminster Abbey. The public enthusiasm for the Jubilee resulted in the production of an enormous range of souvenirs, such as this plate. In subsequent years, the Queen was encouraged to make more frequent public appearances.

The Hungarian-born Ervin Bossanyi developed his stained-glass skills while working in Lübeck in Germany between 1919 and 1929. In 1924 his wife gave birth to a son, and it was then that he began to use the 'mother and son' theme that appears throughout his career. He believed that a mother's love was unselfish and represented the core of human goodness. Bossanyi moved his family to England in 1934 and was noticed by a fellow Hungarian, Rozsike Rothschild, who became his patroness. Some of his first works in England were for London University and the new Uxbridge Station. He began experimenting with new types of glass-painting pigments through the auspices of the firm of Hancocks in Worcester. Hancocks, a specialist paint manufacturer, had been taken over by the Johnson Matthey Organisation, which controlled the Whitefriars Glassworks. Johnson Matthey commissioned Bossanyi to make a glass panel painted with the new pigments he had worked on with Hancocks. The result was the Noli me tangere panel on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Bossanyi made this panel when he learnt that his 93-year-old mother had died in a concentration camp. Bossanyi describes this work: 'I wanted in this glass only the symbols of motherly and filial love, the building of the family home and the deep relationship between the human child and all beauty and grace nature produces and which must not be hurt or destroyed. In this sense should the inscription ['Noli me tangere'] be understood'.

This window is known as a composite window, which means that it was made up of various fragments of glass, the original setting of which is unknown. 'Grisaille' is a term used for panels of clear glass with simple decoration painted in brown/black pigment, and often also in silver (yellow) stain. Grisaille glass sometimes has a small portion of coloured glass in its design, as we see here. At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, the Bishop of Salisbury was a leading figure in the government's reform of churches and their furnishings. It was at this time that most medieval figurative glass was removed from the cathedral and probably destroyed. However, plain glass, such as simple decorative grisaille glass, was allowed to remain. We know that in the latter part of the 18th century a great deal of glass was removed from the windows in the nave and transepts of the cathedral and used to fill ditches in the city. The Chapter House windows, composed of grisaille glass and coats of arms, still remained intact. But by the mid 1800s even this glass had been taken down. Some of it was placed elsewhere in the cathedral, but some seems to have been stored in boxes in the crypt, the leads having been removed. The collector Grosvenor Thomas recovered some of this stored grisaille glass and used it to make up windows. These 'composite' windows eventually ended up in museums in the United States and in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In spite of these losses, some medieval glass still survives in the cathedral, although not in its original location.

Object TypeThis vase is a fully functional object which also meets fashionable taste of around 1900 for simple glazes and shapes which were inspired by Chinese ceramics of the 18th century. Pilkington's chemists developed a wide range of different types of glaze, including lustres, crystalline and semi-matt plain colours known as 'eggshell', like this example. Some of these effects were copying earlier glazes and the wares showed the manufacturer's interest in ceramic history and the potential owner's knowledgeable taste.PeoplePilkington's Tile & Pottery Co. was run by Joseph Burton (1868-1934) as manager and his brother William (1863-1941), a chemist, who was art director. With Abraham Lomax, the Burtons were responsible for the development of a wide range of different types of glaze and also for the introduction of wares painted in coloured lustres, for which Pilkington's is probably most celebrated. The more extrovert and better-known of the brothers, William Burton trained first at Wedgwood. He also taught and worked as an advisor to the ceramics industry and to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Joseph Burton was an expert in early Chinese ceramics. Both Burtons lectured and published widely.

The Victoria and Albert Museum was advised that it should not miss the opportunity of acquiring this 'wonderful kalaga' displayed in the Burma Pavilion of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. Kalagas, pictorial textile hangings, with religious or secular themes were used either as decorative wall hangings, to partition a room or, by the Burmese, on festive occasions to form a screen outside. This hanging, made of red baize with appliqué designs of shaped coloured fabrics (partly painted), white gimp braid and silver sequins, illustrates episodes from the popular Ummadanti Jataka (one of the stories recounting the Buddha's former lives). The costumes of the figures are depicted in the stylised tradition of Burmese theatre relate to the fashions worn in the Mandalay Court of about 1880. Britain's control of Burma extended as the 19th century progressed, and the country was annexed in 1885. The extravagant style of kalagas appealed to Burmese and Europeans alike and their popularity soared in the middle of the 19th century.

Object TypeThis ornate ewer was intended primarily for display and also served as a vehicle for Copeland to show off the skill of his decorators. The classical shape is reminiscent of French Renaissance forms. Different views of Italian lakeside scenery are painted on each side.PeopleThe firm of W.T. Copeland was awarded a prize medal for the 'general excellence' of its porcelain at the Great Exhibition. Daniel Lucas senior (1788-1867) painted landscapes, particularly for the Derby porcelain factory. His youngest son, also Daniel (born about 1818), who had been apprenticed at Derby, also became a scenic painter on china. He worked for periods at the Coalport and Copeland factories, and later became a freelance artist.PlacesAlthough this particular object does not appear in the catalogue illustrations of Copeland's exhibits at the Great Exhibition, a vase with similar gilt ornamentation and with scenes similar to the paintings of the French artist Watteau (1684-1721) is shown. For the next 50 years the ewer was in the collection of the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London, before being transferred with many other items to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1901. It is listed in an 1855 catalogue of pottery and porcelain as 'a single-handled porcelain vase, gilt and painted with landscapes. The ground was in a colour called 'Queen's'.

Turquoise was used in profusion in jewellery of the 19th century. The bright blue colour echoed forget-me-nots, which signified true love in the language of flowers used in sentimental jewellery. It was also traditionally believed to protect its wearer from danger. It was a popular gift to bridesmaids, often in the form of turquoise doves. In 1840, Queen Victoria gave her twelve bridesmaids turquoise brooches in the shape of a Coburg eagle, a reference to Prince Albert's family. The motif of the snake swallowing its tail is often found in turquoise jewellery. This ancient symbol, known as the ouroboros, symbolised eternity and can be found as a token of love and in mourning jewellery. The serpent motif was most fashionable in the 1840s. Queen Victoria wore a serpent bracelet to her first council meeting in 1837 and was given a serpent and emerald engagement ring by Prince Albert.

This gold and jewelled container once formed part of the regalia of King Thibaw, the last Burmese king (r.1878-1885). The karaweik, a mythical bird, is a symbol of longevity. The container was used at the royal palace at Mandalay as part of a betel paraphernalia set. The offering of betel--a mildly narcotic chewing quid--was an essential element of traditional Burmese society. Every household, including the royal family's, had a set of utensils for its preparation. Betel leaves, used to wrap the blend of areca-nut shavings, lime and spices, were stored in the karaweik container. This object was given to the Museum by the Government and people of Burma in generous recognition of the Victoria and Albert Museum's safekeeping of the Burmese royal regalia from 1886 to 1964.

This 19th century gold ring, possibly made in Calcutta in north-eastern India, is set with a large oval sapphire. It has characteristic features of Indian traditional jewellery, while adopting a European method of setting the stone. The sapphire has been cut to produce as large a stone as possible rather than to show its colour to best advantage: there is a marked colour bar across the middle. The claw setting was probably introduced into Indian jewellery by the late 18th century, as Indian goldsmiths copied pieces worn by their new Western clients. The ring was acquired by the Indian Museum in London in 1855 as a piece made in "Bengal". At the time this would have indicated a centre in the Bengal Presidency, a much larger area than present-day Bengal. It is possible that it was made in Calcutta, which had large numbers of jewellers, Indian and European, producing work in hybrid styles. In 1879 the ring was transferred with other parts of the Indian Museum's collections to the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This fan commemorates the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations of 1851. Prince Albert organised the exhibition to celebrate the products and manufactures of the world. The site was Joseph Paxton's 'Crystal Palace' in Hyde Park in London. Fans were part of the exhibition, both as items of display and as souvenirs of the event. This fan was probably one of the more expensive souvenir versions. It has bone sticks rather than the less expensive wood ones. The reverse of the fan leaf is printed in gilt with vignettes of female silhouettes alternating with coats-of-arms. The proceeds of the Great Exhibition allowed the purchase of land for the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria & Albert Museum. The V&A acquired many of the Great Exhibition's winning entries. They now form an integral part of the its collections.