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Specimens selected from the Special Exhibition of works of Arts on Loan at the South Kensington Museum in 1862

Photograph
1862 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

From the beginning the South Kensington Museum (which was to become the V&A) borrowed objects from institutions and private owners. These loans, in addition to supplementing the Museum’s own relatively modest collections, offered the prospect that the loans might be converted to gifts.

In 1862, this practice was extended to include a special exhibition of over 9,000 works on loan from 553 persons. Organised by J. C. Robinson, the Superintendent of the Art Collections, the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods, on loan at The South Kensington Museum was intended to take advantage of the great increase in visitors that both the opening of the International Exhibition of 1862 and the opening of the Museum’s newly constructed galleries would generate.

The exhibition attracted almost 900,000 visitors and many of the objects included in this display remained on loan for the greater part of 1863. The Illustrated London News profiled the loan collections in its 21 June 1862 and 17 January 1863 issues. Following the success of this exhibition, further loan exhibitions of a smaller and more specialist nature were organised.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Specimens selected from the Special Exhibition of works of Arts on Loan at the South Kensington Museum in 1862 (series title)
  • Cope, English, 14th century (generic title)
Materials and techniques
albumen print
Brief description
Photograph by Charles Thurston Thompson?, 'Specimens selected from the Special Exhibition of works of Arts on Loan at the South Kensington Museum in 1862, Cope, English, 14th century,' albumen print, 1862
Physical description
A mounted sepia-coloured photograph of an embroidered cloth mounted with a printed detailedl description and bound in an album with 33 other photographs.
Dimensions
  • Album height: 59cm
  • Album width: 47.5cm
  • Album depth: 4.4cm (Note: dimensions refer to whole album)
Object history
Photographed object lent by the Rev. C. Tickell
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Association
Summary
From the beginning the South Kensington Museum (which was to become the V&A) borrowed objects from institutions and private owners. These loans, in addition to supplementing the Museum’s own relatively modest collections, offered the prospect that the loans might be converted to gifts.

In 1862, this practice was extended to include a special exhibition of over 9,000 works on loan from 553 persons. Organised by J. C. Robinson, the Superintendent of the Art Collections, the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods, on loan at The South Kensington Museum was intended to take advantage of the great increase in visitors that both the opening of the International Exhibition of 1862 and the opening of the Museum’s newly constructed galleries would generate.

The exhibition attracted almost 900,000 visitors and many of the objects included in this display remained on loan for the greater part of 1863. The Illustrated London News profiled the loan collections in its 21 June 1862 and 17 January 1863 issues. Following the success of this exhibition, further loan exhibitions of a smaller and more specialist nature were organised.
Bibliographic reference
Robinson, J.C. (ed.). Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods: on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M. Stationery Office, rev. ed. January 1863. 3002
Collection
Accession number
40272

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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