{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O139220"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O139220/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JB4587/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JB4587/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JB4587","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JB4588","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O139220/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O139220","accessionNumber":"2396-1855","objectType":"Bellows","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Bellows, the front carved in high relief with the adoration of the shepherds, showing Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus in a manger above two chickens; with four figures representing shepherds: one man at the front carrying a lamb, two bearded men with hats, and a woman, and two oxen in the background; the whole scene bordered with acanthus leaf, and set on a male, grotesque mask. The plain back with 3 air holes, and a a hanging hole in the handle. The handles formed by two scallop shells, back to back and plain within. With a remnant of a leather hanging strap fixed with three modern, brass round-headed nails. With a turned metal nozzle (brass?) and replaced leather.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"makers","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"walnut","id":"AAT12476"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Walnut, carved, with metal nozzle","categories":[{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2016JB4587","2016JB4588"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"A","id":"THES386317"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bellows","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1600-1700","earliest":"1600-01-01","latest":"1700-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"72","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"27","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"8.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bought (Bernal Collection) £21 10s. 'Italian 17th century'\r\n\r\n<u>Provenance\n</u>\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Italian 1600-1700; adoration of the shepherds","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Christie and Manson, <i>Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal</i> (London, 1855)","id":"AUTH403540"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hannah Young, ''The perfection of his taste': Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in 19th-century Britain', <i>Cultural and Social History</i>, 19:1 (2022), pp. 19-37 ","id":"AUTH403542"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"The Adoration of the Shepherds","id":"V162"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["2396-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2396","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-01","recordCreationDate":"2007-09-12","availableToBook":false}}