{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O85439"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O85439/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NP4007/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NP4007/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NP4007","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FV7766","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AT5342","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O85439/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O85439","accessionNumber":"REPRO.1885-193","objectType":"Lion","titles":[{"title":"Rosenborg Lion","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"These  animal figures reproduce two of the three silver lions--one seated, one standing and one crouching--made between 1665 and 1670 by the Copenhagen silversmith Ferdinand Kyblich to 'protect' the royal Danish thrones at Rosenborg Castle.  The lions symbolize the Great Belt, the Little Belt and the Sound, the three territorial boundaries that then demarcated Scandinavian sovereignty.\r\n\r\nElectrotype copies of metalwork, particularly goldsmith's work, formed an important part of the Museum's growing collection of reproductions, complementing the plaster casts and photographs of original works. From the 1840s Birmingham-based Elkington & Co. dominated the English trade in electrotyping--an electrical equivalent of casting--and many of the Museum's electrotypes, including these two lions, were produced by Elkington in the 1870s and 1880s. The firm was particularly successful with large-scale electrotypes, which are technically very difficult to make. \r\n\r\nElectrotypes--also called Galvanoplastic copies, named for Luigi Galvini (Italian, 1737-1798), whose early experiments stimulated research on electricity--are closely related to electroplating. A mould (initially of wax, but later of gutta percha) is taken from the object to be reproduced; copper is deposited on the mould in a plating vat; the mould is then removed, revealing a reproduction in copper of the original work. Ordinarily, the copper reproduction would be gilded or plated (as with the lions) to imitate the material of the original. The age tarnished lions were photographed before they were cleaned back to silver.","physicalDescription":"Electrotype Copies of  a Rosenborg Castle Lion, electroplated copper, silvered, 98 x 170 x 64cm.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Elkington & Co.","id":"A1408"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"electrotyping","id":"AAT234668"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Electroplated copper, silvered","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Royalty","id":"THES48899"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2023NP4007","2012FV7766","2006AT5342"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"89 (VA)","id":"THES49706"},"free":"","case":"EXP","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"lion","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Birmingham","id":"x28748"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1885","earliest":"1880-01-01","latest":"1889-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"98","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"170","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"64","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"From Electrotypes register: \"LION. The original of silver, oxidised, is in the Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen. It stands with two others before the king's throne as symbols of the national protection, the Great Belt, the Little Belt and the Sound. Danish. 1670. ... Messrs. Elkington and Co., £100\". Originals made by Ferdinand Kyblich, Copenhagen","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Electrotype Copies of  a Rosenborg Castle Lion, electroplated copper, silvered, Elkington & Co., England (Birmingham), ca. 1885","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Baker, Malcolm, and Brenda Richardson (eds.), <i>A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>, London: V&A Publications, 1999.","id":"AUTH348910"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Angus Patterson, \"The Perfect Marriage of Art and Industry: Elkingtons and the South Kensington Museum's Electrotype Collection\", <u>The Journal of the Antique Metalware Society</u>, Vol. 20, June 2012, pp. 56-77, ill. p. 61"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[{"text":"Rosenborg Castle","id":"THES282226"}],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"lions (animals)","id":"x30150"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["REPRO.1885-193"],"accessionNumberNum":"193","accessionNumberPrefix":"REPRO","accessionYear":1885,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2003-11-10","availableToBook":false}}