{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O91922"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O91922/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CR3849/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CR3849/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CR3849","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O91922/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O91922","accessionNumber":"2261-1855","objectType":"Spoon","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Spoon. Crystal bowl, engraved with the sacred monogram, surrounded by rays, silver gilt quadrangular stem, with champleve enamel scrolls, pomiform knob, a cherub's head near the bowl.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"},{"text":"crystal","id":"AAT11152"},{"text":"champleve enamel","id":"x40107"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53937"},{"text":"engraving (incising)","id":"AAT53829"},{"text":"enamelling","id":"x37485"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Engraved crystal with champleve enamel scrolls","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Tableware & cutlery","id":"THES48888"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2009CR3849"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES404448"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Spoon","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1600","earliest":"1595-01-01","latest":"1604-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"6.75","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1855","earliest":"1855-01-01","latest":"1855-12-31"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This spoon was originally in the collection of Ralph Bernal. Ralph 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. This spoon was among the lots purchased, for £8. 15 s.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Spoon, silver-gilt, crystal and champlevé enamel, Italy, ca.1600.","bibliographicReferences":[{"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":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"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":"(Welby: enamelling looks Hungarian); (Welby: 1570-80)","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"sacred monogram","id":"x46032"},{"text":"rays","id":"x38996"},{"text":"scrolls","id":"AAT10096"},{"text":"cherub","id":"x31364"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Silver Gallery:\n The Sacred Monogram IHS in the rock-crystal bowl suggests this spoon was made for liturgical use. It is badly fitted to its stem and is probably a replacement.","date":{"text":"26/11/2002","earliest":"2002-11-26","latest":"2002-11-26"}}],"partNumbers":["2261-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2261","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-23","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-09","availableToBook":true}}