{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O370848"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O370848/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JU2033/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JU2033/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017JU2033","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010ED5993","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O370848/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O370848","accessionNumber":"1404-1900","objectType":"Panel","titles":[{"title":"Leather panel","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"The Arts and Crafts movement has its roots in the second half of the 19th century, emerging out of a rapidly industrialising Britain. Its proponents placed a renewed focus on the materials and techniques of artisanal crafts. They sought to reunify art and craft, breaking down the division that elevated fine art over the decorative arts. Education was central to the Arts and Crafts vision for a better society, with schools, evening classes and apprenticeships enabling working-class people to improve their practical skills. In a society where women were often disadvantaged, Arts and Crafts activities allowed many to learn skills they had previously been denied. Barred from trades and the apprenticeships required to learn them, women were now able to learn a craft within the newly established arts institutes, affording them the expressive freedom and enjoyment of creative pursuits outside the home. Furthermore, craft skills provided the elusive opportunity to gain financial independence and achieve accomplishments under their own name.\r\n\r\nEleanor T. Rowe (1852-1920) taught at one such institute: the School of Art Wood-Carving (now part of the Royal College of Art), established in 1878 in South Kensington, London. The school was the first public institution dedicated to training male and female craftworkers, with both male and female teachers working under the supervision of Rowe, who was the head carver and school manger from 1882 to 1902. Rowe had previously studied at the school as a student of the Italian sculptor Anton Bulletti, becoming an assistant teacher in 1881, and eventual manager in 1882 upon Bulletti's departure. As head of the school for twenty years, Rowe was an expert in her field, writing and contributing to several books on woodwork, including <i>Hints on Woodcarving for Beginners</i> (1886), <i>Hints on Chip-Carving and Simple Northern Styles </i>(1896), <i>French Wood Carvings from the National Museums</i> (1896), <i>Practical Wood-Carving</i> (1907), and <i>Chip-Carving and Other Surface Carving </i>(1908). In 1901, Rowe worked with three of her students (Miss Kathleen Smith, Miss Ida Britten, and Maria E. Reeks) carving a chair for the young 'Princess Victoria' (Princess Mary of York, born Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary); the design was adapted from a sixteenth-century French chair, with a central panel designed by Walter Crane.  ","physicalDescription":"The decoration consists of a rectangular compartment containing a rayed device within a circle in the centre and in each corner a quadrant of the same; in the space between are rosettes. Round the above is a border of wavy stems bearing leaves and berries, with rosettes in the corners. The compartments are outlined by bands of dated ornament. The ornaments are decorated with divers punches in five different forms. Painted in red-, green-, and brown-glazes. Fringes on the four edges.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Rowe, Eleanor","id":"A23343"},"association":{"text":"makers","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"leather","id":"AAT11845"}],"techniques":[{"text":"embossing","id":"AAT53826"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Embossed and gilded leather","categories":[{"text":"Interiors","id":"THES48933"},{"text":"Leather","id":"THES49030"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2017JU2033","2010ED5993"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"006","id":"THES301744"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Panel","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1900","earliest":"1900-01-01","latest":"1900-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"25-1891","id":"O131304"},"association":"Copy"},{"object":{"text":"MA/35/99","id":"ARC24066"},"association":"Archive record"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"46","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"60.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Original measurements: 22 3/4 in. x 18 1/8 in.","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bought from the Woman's exhibition, Earl's Court, 1900. The report on it by T. Armstrong is as follows: 'A panel of leather, decorated with designs in coloured lacquer and punched patterns, copied from an old chair seat in the museum. This is admirably executed and it would, I think, be worth while to get Miss Rowe to copy in the same way the back of the chair and to have both mounted in imitation of the original. The price is £ 4.4.'\r\n\r\nThe pattern is a close adaptation of the seat of a 16th c. Italian chair, V&A, museum number 25-1891, the main modification being the replacement of the central shield of arms with a sunburst design.  ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Panel, punched gilt leather, painted, Eleanor Rowe, London, 1900.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'Miss Eleanor T. Rowe', <i>Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951</i>, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>The Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine</i>, Vol. X, May to October 1901, pp. 279-280. London: Hutchinson and Co."}],"production":"School of Art Woodcarving, South Kensington","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1404-1900"],"accessionNumberNum":"1404","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1900,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-19","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}