{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1015785"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1015785/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EH3049/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EH3049/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2010EH3049","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU3258","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KA7294","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1015785/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1015785","accessionNumber":"7282","objectType":"Topographical view","titles":[{"title":"Marlborough House: Sixth Room","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"In 1837 a School of Design (later moved to the current Victoria and Albert Museum site and known as the Art School or Art Training School) opened at Somerset House with the intention of promoting high design standards, and strengthening the links between design and manufacture. Casts and works of ornamental art were purchased for studying, but by the early 1850s the collection had been moved to the cellars as the School struggled with a shortage of space. A loan of Marlborough House was offered by Prince Albert, who had been approached by Henry Cole, and the building opened as the Museum of Manufactures in 1852. Renamed the Museum of Ornamental Art the following year, it combined the School’s existing collection with 244 contemporary items bought from the Great Exhibition. This too was a temporary home, and in 1857 the collection moved again and was renamed the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). Dated 1857, this detailed watercolour therefore provides a record of one of the densely-arranged interiors at Marlborough House - specifically, the sixth of the six rooms - shortly before they were dismantled. The Marlborough House displays were partly organised by lender and object type, but, as the Museum’s curator J. C. Robinson explained, the quickly increasing size of the collection meant that it was ‘very difficult to secure any methodic [sic] order of actual arrangement of the specimens inasmuch as the completeness of to-day is dislocation and disorder on the morrow’.","physicalDescription":"Watercolour on paper. This very detailed interior view shows the sixth room of the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House. The room is painted pink, with a white cornice incorporating a band of acanthus decoration, white edging to the two round-headed niches on the left wall, white frames to the two rectangular windows in the rear wall, and a white square-headed doorway on the right wall. Displayed on and against the wall surfaces is a richly-varied and tightly-packed collection. This includes torchères, carved pieces of dark wooden furniture, plates and vases, stained glass and mirrors with elaborate gilt frames. Placed centrally in the room is a large wood-framed cabinet, with a solid base supporting vertically- and horizontally-viewed display spaces arranged as an inverted ‘T’. On the right, the view is framed by a dark green curtain. The watercolour has a stippled appearance; light and reflections are carefully depicted. Five faces are sketched in the margins. Signed C. Armytage.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Armytage, Charles","id":"A35418"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on paper","categories":[{"text":"History of the V&A","id":"THES252692"},{"text":"Interiors","id":"THES48933"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2010EH3049","2017JU3258","2017KA7294"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"PD","shelf":"160","box":"D"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1857","earliest":"1857-01-01","latest":"1857-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"297","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"image","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"395","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"image","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"355","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"493","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"View of Victoria and Albert Museum's forerunner, the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, by Charles Armytage, interior view of the sixth room, 1857","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Julius Bryant, ed. <u>Art and Design for All. The Victoria and Albert Museum</u> London: V&A Publishing, 2011. ISBN: 9781851776665."},{"reference":{"text":"Physick, John. <u>The Victoria and Albert Museum: The History of Its Building</u>. London: The Victoria & Albert Museum, 1982.","id":"AUTH322581"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Marlborough House","id":"x36438"},{"text":"Victoria and Albert Museum","id":"x32782"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["7282"],"accessionNumberNum":"7282","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}