Shiny things, pretty dresses, pastries, &c

[mirrorshard]

Went into London today to meet up with owlfish whom I hadn't seen for absolutely ages, plus a bit. Spent awhile catching up on developments and gossip and all the other things one does, and we decided it would be nice to go to the V&A and wander around there for awhile. We got in, marvelled awhile at the indescribable plastic octopoid thing hanging above the reception desk, looked at the little map, and then decided it'd be easier and more productive just to pick a direction and walk in it.



The one we picked turned out to be the Asian galleries, and we saw rather a lot of gorgeous textiles, illuminated and painted pages, jade, and gold. It was a little... disconcerting... to see trophies of Tippoo the Tiger of Mysore, in a nice glass case just like anything else, but labelled with some of the events of the war and the items' provenance. As owlfish put it (freely and extremely paraphrased), "Here's some stuff we bought from the natives for three glass beads and a case of syphilis, here's some stuff we dug up from someone's grave, and here's some stuff we looted from a Sultan's still-warm corpse." I remember reading about his famous mechanical tiger (it growls and eats a European man's head when you turn the handle) in a Hotspur annual inherited from my father, back in 1985 or so.

Moving on, we encountered what looked like a nice-sized exhibition of stained glass and ecclesiastical silverware, with lots of interesting details. It turned out to be a ridiculously large and comprenehsive collection of stained glass and ecclesiastical silverware - it just kept going on, and on, and on. At a rough guess there was enough silverware there to plate a moderately sized cathedral. After the third gallery (with a peculiar ceiling that the gentleman on duty couldn't explain to us) and a display of thirty modern interpretations of the fish slice (or cake slice), we became shiny-thinged-out and went for lunch. Very nice Italian place, followed by ice-cream at Oddono's - a scoop of mandarin and lime sorbet and a scoop of 'Zanzibar' (pepper, ginger, and clove ice cream) for me. These were entirely to die for, and very earnestly recommended.

Back to the V&A, and we went to look around the fashion gallery, mostly in entirely the reverse order to the one the designer intended, and saw lots of very nice things we would've liked to take home with us. Next stop after that, the cast courts, which contain plaster casts. Not, you understand, just any plaster casts - this was a Victorian innovation designed to enrich the cultural understanding of all Europe, and like most grand Victorian projects, it's done on a grand Victorian scale. They have plaster casts of baptismal fonts, statues, saints' tombs, forty-foot archways, and Trajan's Column, amongst amazing and bewildering multitudes of other typically tasteful Victorian architectural crap. It's wonderful.

After that, we ate very nice pastries and spent awhile looking at Japanese supermarkets, and I introduced owlfish to a mysterious and unpronounceable Korean drink I've grown quite fond of (there's no English text on the can, so I have no idea what it's actually called), with whole grapes in it.

And so to bed!

Comments

[fabricati-diem.livejournal.com]

"I remember reading about his famous mechanical tiger (it growls and eats a European man's head when you turn the handle) in a Hotspur annual inherited from my father, back in 1985 or so."

Yeah, it's in one of the royal places - I can't off-hand remember if it's Windsor Castle or Buckingham palace, but I've certainly seen it.

I remember thinking at the time how well-made it was, even for something that's a couple of hundred years old. It's definitely not your Fisher Price kind of toy (probably because they can't get the licensing to use a British soldier), but it's still fantastic.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Sorry if I wasn't clear - what we saw was the tiger itself. http://www.nationalgalleries.org.uk/tipu/tiger11.htm has a detailed provenance. It was seeing that out of the corner of my eye, in fact, that made me head over the other side of that gallery to look at the case.

There's little replicas available, but they don't have the soldier-eating action :(

[fabricati-diem.livejournal.com]

Oooh,

Looks like they've moved it then.

*Looks suitably embarrased whilst booking tickets for London*