Embossed gilt leather panel, with a pattern in high relief of scrolling foliage with fruit and flowers on which some swallows are perched. Unpainted, and set in a mahogany frame.

Embossed gilt leather panel, with a pattern in high relief of scrolling foliage with fruit and flowers, on which some swallows are perched. Unpainted, and set in a mahogany frame.

Given by Miss Anna Alma-Tadema

The pattern on this panel is the same as that on the leather panels: 3695-1856, 3697-1856 and 3728-1856, which are French, purchased from the 1855 Paris International Exhibition and attributed to Jacques Dulud of Paris.

Formerly in the collection of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A. At the sale of the contents of his house, 34 Grove End Road, London NW, it was located in his dining room (lot no. 323). A note of Alma-Tadema regarding the donation of this leather panel reads as follows: 'Dear Sir Cecil [Smith], I found a pencil note my dear father had made concerning addition to his will, which he did not live to carry out. He wished to leave his large panel of repousse leather to the Victoria & Albert. We were bound by the tenets of the will to let it go into the sale. Fortunately for me it was at a low enough figure enable me to purchase it, and I want to carry out his wish and present it in his name to the museum. I don't know if he had the opportunity of showing you the panel ever at home. He was fond of showing it to his friends, I believe it is supposed to be Italian, 16th century. The only other one we have ever heard of like it is in the Pamphilij Doria in Rome. It measures 110 x 43 inches, is mounted in a mahogany hinged frame.'

Although mentioned in the letter by the donor, there is no gilt leather hanging in Palazzo Pamphilij Doria in Rome (this was checked by Eloy Koldeweij when he visited the palazzo in September 1996).

Miss Anna Alma-Tadema offered this panel to the Museum in a letter of 20th July 1913 (Registered File 3690M, Museum Archive). Her letter identifies the panel as a piece her father, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, had intended to bequeath to the Museum in a note he made concerning alterations to his will. The panel was included in the sale of his collection by Hampton & Sons at his home, 34 Grove End Road, London, June 9th-16th 1913. It was probably lot 323 in the Dining Room, 'An old Italian upright leather panel, finely embossed birds, flowers, fruit and foliated scrolls, etc., in high relief, mounted in a specially-made mahogany hinged frame (110 in. by 43 in.)'. Miss Alma-Tadema was able to buy the panel at a low figure in order to fulfil her father's wishes that it should be given to the Museum.

Oliver Brackett, Department of Woodwork, suggested the panel be displayed 'on one of the pillars in Room 21, which would probably give a satisfactory side light'. (Minute, 24th July 1913, RF 3690M). In 1926 it was on the staircase by the old offices.

Identical to museum numbers: 3695-1856, 3697-1856, 3697A-1856 and 3728-1856, which were purchased from the 1855 Paris International Exhibition and were probably made by the Parisian firm of Jacques Dulud.

This leather panel came from the dining-room in the house of the famous painter, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) in Grove End House, in north-west London. It was given to the Museum by his daughter Anna, who noted that her father wished it to come to the Museum and believed it to be Italian and to date from the 16th century. She wrote that similar panels were in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilji, Rome, but there is no current evidence of this. What is certain is that the panel is of the same design as three panels (Museum Nos. 3695-1856, 3697-1856 and 3728-1856) that were purchased at the 1855 Paris International Exhibition as fine examples of contemporary design, almost certainly by the Parisian firm of Jacques Dulud.

W.42-1913