Art of England

[Creoda]

Celtic mirror (Insular La Tene style) from Northamptonshire, 50 BC-50 AD



Celtic Head (Keltic Nordic) from Northern England, 100-300 AD



Anglo-Saxon jewelled disc brooch, from Kent, 600-700 AD

[The Lawspeaker]

An ironwork cross almost 3m high was the uppermost feature of a magnificent screen in Salisbury Cathedral, designed by G G Scott and made by Francis Skidmore, erected in about 1870. The screen was taken down in 1959 and mostly sold, but the cross survived. Its surface was rusty and corroded, but small traces of original distinctive red paint and gilding remained. Painstakingly the cross was taken apart and each piece cleaned using dry ice, then repainted and gilded. Replacement parts were made using the latest digital technology. The restored cross was reassembled and is now a dazzling highlight of the ironwork galleries. Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/conservation

[The Lawspeaker]

Originally from London and originally meant as a dining room and display case for a stunning collection of blue and white porcelain (now in the V&A Museum in London) - the Peacock Room (1877 - by American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler and British architect and designer Thomas Jeckyll) can now be found in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Learn about the Peacock Room's current installation and go behind the scenes with Freer|Sackler curators and staff. Don't forget to vote for Whistler's masterpiece as the Smithsonian's most iconic object in the #SIshowdown! http://go.si.edu/votepeacockroom Download the free Peacock Room app for iPad and iPhone: http://asia.si.edu/apps

The Peacock Room ignited a bitter feud, and became so famous, it was moved walls and all, across the Atlantic, where it now resides in the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery. From the Series: Smithsonian Spotlight: Peacock Room http:///2lg5oTx

[The Lawspeaker]

Made in 1904 by Hibbert C. Binney, the magnificent trumpet-playing angel statue, known as the Spirit of Gaiety, once stood atop the Gaiety Theatre in London's west-end, at the junction of Aldwych and the Strand. Years of exposure to rainwater had left her internal framework heavily corroded and woodwork weakened – urgent structural work was required to prevent her collapse. Follow Zoe Allen, Head of the Furniture Conservation Studio at the V&A, as she leads an extensive treatment programme to restore Gaiety, replacing the statue's internal structure, strengthening rotten woodwork and reinstating her brilliant gilded surface. Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/conservation

[Daco Celtic]

L. S. Lowry (1887-1976) Painter of workaday scenes in 20th Century England

[Creoda]

Elizabeth Thompson - Scotland Forever (Charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo), 1881

[Daco Celtic]

In keeping with current events in Afghanistan

William Barnes Wollen
"The last stand of the survivors of Her Majesty's 44th Foot at Gandamak" -1898

[Your Old Comrade]

Dark and dramatic depiction of the funeral of a Viking, his body being set to sea on a burning pyre. Standing on the shore, to the right of the composition, are a crowd of Viking men and soldiers with arms and weapons raised as the burning ship carrying the body is pushed out. Most prominent of these figures is that of an armoured man standing forward of the crowd, wearing a crested helmet and a breast-plate with raised ornamentation, with his right arm raised and holding a flaming torch in his left. The boat, with a stern carved into the form of the head of a mythical beast, is hauled into the rough sea by muscular male figures; the recumbent body of the dead Viking, fully armoured, is surrounded by flames. In the background are austere, rocky mountains seen under a dark and stormy sky. Most of the scene is illuminated by the glow of the burning pyre and the torch of the foreground figure, which is reflected in the water and the glistening shore. Frame: designed by the artist: gilt, carved wood; decorated with classical motifs but also with a running chain pattern which is one of the features of the Viking Borre style of ornament, which flourished in the 9th and 10th centuries.

By Frank Bernard Dicksee, 1893