Table Lectern, Britannia silver, partly decorated with niello, rock crystal pendant with gold and enamel, glass base, United Kingdom, London hallmarks for 1986, designed and made by Louis Osman (1914-1996), with assistance from Dilys Osman (enamel), Rashid El Hadi (engraving), Mick Knight (engraving and other work), Peter Musgrove, Wally Gilbert, Ra Bonevitz (rock crystal), Tim Gibbs and Andy Marsden, 1983-90.

Table Lectern. The rectangular platen is supported by a central column, which together with the platen itself, revolves on an internal spiral thread to increase or decrease its height. It is locked at the height chosen by a square-headed screw. The column rises out of a large sphere which is held in a U-shaped arc, the foot of which passes through a heavy glass plinth to rest directly on a black wooden baseboard. The sphere is placed in an aperture in the middle of a horizontal, rectangular table which is supported at the corners by four legs which descend to the glass sheet which they hold while resting lightly on the black baseboard.

The sphere (and therefore the column and platen) can be tilted to varying angles by means of a peg and hole rack which curves, at the back of the lectern, from the horizontal table down to the foot of the U-shaped arc. The table and the sphere are engraved, and partly nielloed.

The sphere is engraved on top with a radiating sun beneath which are, at the foot of the sphere, the face of a woodwose with oak leaves, and, at the back, a moon with stars on a nielloed ground. Beneath the face is a monogram of the letters V and A, (Victoria and Albert Museum), which rises from an area of darkness inhabited by a hydra and an octopus. The horizontal table is engraved with waves, fish, seaweed and shells, and behind the sphere, with a large crab on a niello ground.

From the front of the platen an irregular oval in rock crystal hangs at the centre which contains an enamelled phoenix by Dilys Osman. The pendant is partly illuminated by a shaft of light directed from the fluorescent tube lighting the platen.

A fluorescent light fitting is concealed within the folded edge along the upper edge of the platen and is powered by a cable attached to a three pin plug.

On 10/02/1986 Louis Osman described the decoration which he envisged in a letter to Rashid El Hadi, who executed much of the engraving of the sphere and began the engraving of the rectangular table. A copy of the letter is in both the RF and the object file held in Metalwork. The lectern:

"is about creation and the creative process as related to the V&A and those who direct it. I hope that it will stand against the superb pieces of the past; having its roots in the past but being in itself completely contemporary." In essence, the theme is "the spirit of light struggling against the forces of darkness which threaten the V&A rebus which rises from the darkness as the spreading slope is tilted towards the intellect of the speaker. The woodwose, and, of course, the sun symbolise creativity. The creative spiritual genesis of the symbolism will be in the rock crystal (pure optics) and enamel (pure colour)...The horizontal plane of the sea lapping a shelving shore forms the transition from the immutable equilibrium of the non-formal air and the formal earth stability to the ceasingly moving and constantly mediating waters of dynamic forces and intermediate states. The crab is in its transitional sludge governed by the moon in performance of its symbolic role as mediator between the formal and informal worlds. The `lower waters' signify the abyss out of which forms arise to unfold their constantly changing potentialities. The sea picks up and adds the reflection of the light and dark of the terrestial globe to its own darkness of infinite depth: deep calls to the deep. The hinge pins shape the sign of the Zodiacal `Libra - Equilibrium, balance and conjunction.'

The whole of this symbolism is inverted in its reflection in the highly polished underside of the parallel reading slope. All opposites are for an instant fused together with their symbols inverted..."

Commissioned by Sir Roy Strong for the Victoria and Albert Museum

Commissioned by Sir Roy Strong, Director of the V&A, 1973-1987, for the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was initially placed in 1983 and was intended to form part of the collection of Director's plate; a number of items commissioned for use, as well as for inclusion in the permanent collections. Other examples are a pair of candelabra by Robert Welch and the Carrington Cup by Kevin Coates.

A wooden trolley with heavy iron pincers was designed with the lectern to enable it to be moved around the Museum and in and out of a showcase. It was made by John Nethercott of Hereford. The black wooden plinth was made in the V&A Joiners' Workshop.

The registered paper for the commissioning of the lectern contain an extensive correspondence, including sketches and copies of letters from Louis Osman to the contributing artists. There are also photogrpahs of the interior of the lectern.

Louis Osman was born in Exeter in 1914. He trained at the Bartlett School of Architecture and studied drawing at the Slade School of Art. As a goldsmith, he was responsible for the `demi-crown' used for the the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 (now on loan to the National Museum of Wales), and for the Golden Gift of the Magna Carta, presented by the British Government to the United States of America as a bicentennial gift in 1976. He had a one-man show at Goldsmiths' Hall in 1974. He collaborated with Graham Sutherland on the Ely Crucifix (now in the Dallas Museum of Art; examples of a limited edition are in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the National Museum of Wales). As an architect, his work has included the restoration of the north side of Cavendish Square (with Epstein as sculptor), and the Principal's Lodging, Newnham College, Cambridge. He was responsible for the substantial renovation of a house for his fellow goldsmith, Gerald Benney.

M.59-1990