Majolica
Stained Glass Design
ca. 1870 (made)
ca. 1870 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
As carried out during the late 1860s and 1870s, the interior of the Lecture Theatre block of the Victoria and Albert Museum - containing the Lecture Theatre, Ceramic Gallery (now the Silver Gallery, Rooms 65-69) and refreshment rooms - was elaborately decorated. This pen and ink drawing comprises one of William Bell Scott’s designs for the fourteen stained-glass windows in the Ceramic Gallery. Henry Cole, the first director of the Museum, was responsible for the theme. Mirroring the arrangement of ceramic items within the gallery, the stained-glass windows depicted historical periods of ceramic manufacture: seen here is the production of majolica. Scott executed the designs by painting onto glass panes with a brush, keeping the windows virtually free of colour (yellow being the only stain used) so as not to darken the gallery. Scott also designed two stained-glass windows for the landings of the two staircases leading up from the Ceramic Gallery to the Lecture Theatre.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Majolica |
| Materials and techniques | Pen and ink with watercolour on paper |
| Brief description | Design for Victoria and Albert Museum by William Bell Scott, Ceramic Gallery, stained glass window (Majolica), about 1870 |
| Physical description | Small-scale pen and ink drawing with watercolour on paper. Divided into four rectangular lights, with a further light indicated above, this design for a stained-glass window in the Ceramic Gallery (now the Silver Gallery, Rooms 65-69) is labelled ‘Majolica’, ‘6th Window’. In each of the upper two window lights and the lower left window light, a stage of preparing clay is carried out by figures in the foreground, with a townscape seen behind. In the lower right window light, again before a distantly-depicted townscape, two seated male figures shape pots with their hands whilst using foot-operated potter’s wheels. Drawn to a larger scale and coloured with yellow watercolour, to the side is a detail of a design of tied fruit to be used as a border. Annotated. |
| Dimensions |
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| Place depicted | |
| Summary | As carried out during the late 1860s and 1870s, the interior of the Lecture Theatre block of the Victoria and Albert Museum - containing the Lecture Theatre, Ceramic Gallery (now the Silver Gallery, Rooms 65-69) and refreshment rooms - was elaborately decorated. This pen and ink drawing comprises one of William Bell Scott’s designs for the fourteen stained-glass windows in the Ceramic Gallery. Henry Cole, the first director of the Museum, was responsible for the theme. Mirroring the arrangement of ceramic items within the gallery, the stained-glass windows depicted historical periods of ceramic manufacture: seen here is the production of majolica. Scott executed the designs by painting onto glass panes with a brush, keeping the windows virtually free of colour (yellow being the only stain used) so as not to darken the gallery. Scott also designed two stained-glass windows for the landings of the two staircases leading up from the Ceramic Gallery to the Lecture Theatre. |
| Associated objects | |
| Bibliographic reference | Physick, John. The Victoria and Albert Museum: The History of Its Building. London: The Victoria & Albert Museum, 1982.
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 8099:10 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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