{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O105966"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O105966/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AE5368/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AE5368/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AE5368","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JJ6043","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O105966/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O105966","accessionNumber":"E.5036-1968","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Adeline Plunket","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"In Persian Mythology, a péri was superhuman being endowed with grace and beauty.  In ballet of the 1840s, she was, like the sylphs and nymphs, an unattainable spirit, a symbol of escape from the prosaic and mundane world. The costume, with its short sleeves, jewelled chains and belts, looks more like a balleticised version of Indian costume than Persian, but the intention was to evoke exotic, far-away places, rather than a realistic recreation. The bodice is married to what is unmistakably a bell-shaped skirt of the mid-19th century. \r\nAdelina Plunkett wears what we now recognize as ballet shoes.  These developed from the heelless satin slippers, held by crossed ribbons, which were the height of fashion in the early 19th century.  Darned to give extra support, and then stiffened by various techniques and with a solid base across the toes, they developed into the modern pointe shoe.","physicalDescription":"A female dancer stands on her left point, her right leg raised in attitude behind; her body is slightly turned to her right, her arms bent and the hands held at breast height; her head is turned to look at the viewer.  On her severely dressed hair she wears a 'tiara' of large stars; her off-the-shoulder bodice is cut very low on the bust and over it she wears a minute 'bolero' tinted palest blue fitting under the bust and forming small ruched-up sleeves on the upper arm.  The pointed front of the bodice is outlined in a fine jewelled belt tinted palest red and yellow.  The bell-shaped, knee-length skirt is formed of two layers of diaphanous fabric.  The dancer's hair and features are delicately coloured. The print area corners are cut across","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Maguire, T. H.","id":"A5822"},"association":{"text":"lithographer","id":"AAT25175"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Lithographic ink","id":"AAT187750"},{"text":"Paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Lithography","id":"AAT53271"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Tinted lithograph","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2006AE5368","2016JJ6043"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"008","id":"THES356644"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Print","id":""}],[{"text":"Lithograph coloured by hand","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Europe","id":"x28842"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1847","earliest":"1847-01-01","latest":"1847-12-31"},"association":{"text":"published","id":"x30682"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Dame Marie Rambert","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"430","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at centre","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"287","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at centre","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Irregularly cut down","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The print shows the dancer Adelina Plunkett, possibly in the ballet La Péri.  She was born in Belgium and danced in London and Paris in the 1840s and 1850s.  \r\nThe print is part of the collection of dance prints amassed by Marie Rambert and her husband, Ashley Dukes in the first half of the 20th century.  Eventually numbering over 130 items, it was one of the first and most important specialist collections in private hands.  \r\nRambert bought the first print as a wedding present but could not bear to give it away.  As the collection grew, it was displayed in the bar of the Mercury Theatre, the headquarters of Ballet Rambert, but in 1968, Rambert gave the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Although it is often referred to as the Rambert-Dukes collection of Romantic Ballet prints, it includes important engravings of 17th and 18th century performers, as well as lithographs from the later 19th century, by which time the great days of the ballet in London and Paris were over.","historicalContext":"The large souvenir prints of the Romantic ballet, issued in the 1830s and 1840s, are among the most evocative images of dance in the 19th century.  Lithography, with its soft quality, enhanced by the delicate yet rich hand-colouring, was ideally suited to the subject - the ballerinas who dominated ballet in the mid-century and the romanticised settings in which they performed; style and subject were perfectly matched. The lithographs produced in London are notable for capturing the personality and style of individual performers in a theatrical setting.  They are a fitting tribute to one of ballet's richest periods.","briefDescription":"Adeline Plunkett possibly in the ballet La Péri.  Tinted lithograph by T H Maguire, 1847.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"'Drawn on stone from life'","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.5036-1968"],"accessionNumberNum":"5036","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1968,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-08","recordCreationDate":"2004-09-29","availableToBook":true}}