On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Prince Albert

Medallion Portrait
1864 (made)
Artist/Maker
Salviati & C. (manufacturer)
Lanbert (maker)
Podio, Enrico (mosaicist)
Place of origin
Venice (made)

Mount: 'LANBERT COVENTRY ST LONDON'

Object details

Categories
ELISE
Glass
Object type
Medallion portrait
TitlePrince Albert
Materials and techniques
Unpolished glass mosaic, in gilt metal frame
Brief description
Medallion portrait of Prince Albert, Italy (Venice), made by Salviati & C. and frame by Lanbert, Coventry Street, London, 1864
Physical description
Mount: 'LANBERT COVENTRY ST LONDON'
Dimensions
  • Height: 19.5cm
  • Maximum width: 16.5cm
Style
19TH CONT
Marks and inscriptions
'STABILIMENTO SALVIATI VENEZIA 1864' (Makers's mark)
Gallery label
Antonio Salviati, a barrister, began investigating glassmaking techniques as a result of his concern over the deplorable state of the mosaics in St. Mark's Basilica, Venice. In 1861 he founded a company to manufacture glass mosaic, gaining an order for the supply of mosaic to St. Marks immediately. With strong support from England from the outset, Salviati quickly established contacts in London and commissions from the South Kensington Museum for decorative mosaics (see parts of the exterior of the Lecture Theatre building). This miniature portrait of Prince Albert, made, possibly speculatively, by Salviati was presented to Queen Victoria in 1864, three years after Albert's death. She presented it to the Museum two years later.
Credit line
Given by Queen Victoria
Production
Dated 1864.
Frame made by Lanbert of Coventry Street, London,

A larger version og the same design from the Pauly Collection of Murano Glass was auctioned at Sotheby's Venice on 13th September 2005, lot 5 (60.5 x 54 cm).
This is marked in tesserae: 'E.Podio F. 1865, Stabil. Venezia'.
Enrico Podio was a specialist micro mosaic worker from Rome, who was hired by Antonio Salviati to set up his first Mosaic workshop in Venice.
Subject depicted
Albert (Prince Consort, Consort of Queen Victoria)
Bibliographic references
  • Liefkes, R: The Burlington, May, 1994; Physick, J: History of the V&A building.....
  • See Ceramics & Glass Object Information File
  • Sheldon Barr, Venetian Glass Mosaics 1860-1917, Woodbridge, 2008, p.24
Other number
9416 - Glass gallery number
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
261-1866

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Record createdDecember 13, 1997
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O697/prince-albert-medallion-portrait-podio-enrico/
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