{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O324719"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O324719/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022ND1871/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022ND1871/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2022ND1871","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2022ND1872","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AF3913","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB5389","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB5380","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O324719/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O324719","accessionNumber":"356-1889","objectType":"Strapwork","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This elegant, curling, wrought-iron hinge-ornament once provided support for a twelfth-century door in the south transept that opened into a 'slype' or covered passageway connected to the medieval Chapter House. The straight part in the centre connected to a hinge, while the curling tendrils extended horizontally across the vertical wooden planks of the door to help keep the door together and strengthen it, while also decorating it in a flamboyant way.\r\n\r\nSt. Albans Abbey is one of Britain's most beautiful and historic cathedrals.The door and the slype, howevever, were casualties of some controversial repairs to the cathedral carried out in the 1880s under Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe. Grimthorpe was a gifted mathematician, lawyer and inventor who designed the mechanism for the clock in the Houses of Parliament that sounds Big Ben. Popular opinion at the time, however, suggests Grimthorpe's talents did not extend to architectural restoration. A history of the abbey published in 1903 listed the south transept among 'the havoc wrought by Lord Grimthorpe'. The entire southern wall of the south transept was replaced to Grimthorpe's design and a new doorway was built 'which seems now chiefly used as a passage for carrying in coke for the stoves in the transept.'\n\r\nWhen the ancient door was removed the delicate upper hinge was saved and presented to the V&amp;A in 1889.","physicalDescription":"Ironwork hinge removed from St Albans Abbey","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wrought iron","id":"AAT11012"}],"techniques":[{"text":"forging (metal forming)","id":"AAT54033"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wrought iron","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Ironwork","id":"THES251837"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2022ND1871","2022ND1872","2006AF3913","2017KB5389","2017KB5380"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"114e","id":"THES49910"},"free":"","case":"north wall east end","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Hinge-work","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1160s","earliest":"1160-01-01","latest":"1169-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"According to Jane Geddes (1999) pp138-139"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the Archdeacon Lawrance","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"81","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"46","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"From the slype door of St Alban's Abbey erected by Abbot Robert de Gorham (1151-68)","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Strapwork, part of a hinge, wrought iron, made in England for St Albans Abbey, 1160s","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Gardner, John Starkie. <u>Ironwork. Part 1: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Medieval Period</u>. London, 1892.","id":"AUTH317862"},"details":"Pl.6, p.63","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Ayrton, Maxwell and Arnold Silcock. <u>Wrought iron and its decorative use</u>. London : Country Life, ltd ; New York, C. Scribner's sons, 1929. 4 pl., 196 p., ill.","id":"AUTH317256"},"details":"Fig.20","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hollister-Short, G. J.  Precursors of the Thirteenth-century great hinge.  <u>Connoisseur</u>.  Feb. 1970. pp.108-12, pl.2-3."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"The Revd T. Faulkner Lee, 'The Chapter House of St Albans Abbey', The Fraternity of Friends, Monograph No. 1, 1849"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'The Cathedral Church of Saint Albans with an Account of the Fabric &amp; A Short History of the Abbey', by the the Rev. Thomas Perkins, M.A., Rector Of Turnworth, Dorset, George Bell And Sons, London, 1903, pp. 52-53."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"small batch","id":"THES252237"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"scrolls (motifs)","id":"AAT10094"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"HINGE-WORK\r\nWrought iron,\r\nEngland, late 12th or 13th century\r\n\r\nThis is from a twelfth-century door at St. Albans Abbey. The horizontal bar connected to the hinge, and the curling tendrils provided support to the door.\r\n\r\nMuseum No. 356-1889\r\n","date":{"text":"05/02/2025","earliest":"2025-02-05","latest":"2025-02-05"}},{"text":"HINGE-WORK\r\nWrought iron (mounted on a modern door)\r\nEngland (St Albans Abbey); late 12th or 13th century\r\n356-1889\r\n\r\nThe original was from the slype door in the Abbey.","date":{"text":"07/1994","earliest":"1994-07-01","latest":"1994-07-31"}}],"partNumbers":["356-1889"],"accessionNumberNum":"356","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1889,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2017KC4748"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-15","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}