Two months ago I was lucky to win two tickets to see The Mousetrap in London.

I wrote a blog about the marvellous evening, which you can read here if you fancy it.

However, it wasn’t the only thing we did in London that day, as alongside my travelling companion, Smita, we were ensconced in the V&A Museum looking at as many exhibits as we could manage.

Having never been to the museum before, I was keen to see quite a few of the exhibits on show. Now, entry into the museum is free, however there are usually a number of special exhibitions within the museum that you have to buy tickets for.

In this case, African Fashion and Beatrix Potter were two of the specialist exhibitions. There was a third but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was!

Anyway, we mistakenly headed for the side doors of the museum rather than the main entrance. Whilst this wasn’t a massive issue, it meant we missed the welcome desk and literature regarding where to go and what we could see.

Thankfully there was a museum docent who was able to point us in the right direction and give us a map of the building. We headed off through the Buddhism section where there were sights from all over the East.

Walking through into Japan, we were both stunned by the items on display; Kimono, Samurai armour, furniture and the tiniest of Netsuke. I merrily snapped away, taking large amounts of photographs.

After spending quite a while in this area, I needed to sit down and take some pain medication. Smita went onwards into an area which featured Religious items whilst I relaxed on one of the many chairs and benches situated in the Museum.

On her return, Smita was very enthusiastic about the  section and said there were exhibits in there that I needed to see. We walked into the section and I have to admit that she was very right indeed.

This area housed a great deal of statuary and what looked like the interiors of churches and religious institutions. Archways, sarcophagi, Celtic crosses and even stairways, most of them of stone and alabaster.

All of them were beautifully created; carved heads, Celtic knotwork, iconography and Bible stories were depicted across the hundreds of exhibits.

There was even a sarcophagus/tomb of Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I, who has two crosses erected in my home county which mark the progress of her journey in death to Westminster Abbey.

Moving into the Renaissance Cartoons area, I was a bit confused as to why it was name such. However, the word Cartoon did not mean the same many hundreds of years ago!

These were absolutely outstanding and we spent a fair amount of time looking at all the exhibits.

We moved into an area designated as Contemporary Glass. I was eager to see this display as was Smita however I was starting to flag a little and knew there were other exhibits that I wanted to see more; Jewellery for one.

Sitting on a large glass bench, I happily whiled away a little time, taking in the ambience and even reading a book. It was so calm and serene even though there were many hundreds of people in the building. It never seemed like there was anyone else around.

From Contemporary Glass, our next destination was Porcelain and I have to admit, this was probably the section I least liked which surprised me somewhat.

I think this was because each glass cabinet was chock-a-block full of Porcelain, many pieces placed in lines, many deep. There was a vase in front of a teapot in front of a cup which in turn was in front of a saucer. You could not see the individual details of the pieces and I just felt overwhelmed by it all.

One of the placards in the area listed that there was over 10,000 exhibits in that one space and suddenly it made a lot of sense as to why I didn’t really like the way it was all laid out.

We decided to head on to the Jewellery exhibition which a docent had recommended.

In order to do so, we needed to go through the Ironware section which was amazing. The most intricate of lock and keys to the largest safe box and cabinet. Fencing and signs were hanging on walls and doorways.

The age of some of the pieces was unbelievable; before tools and mass produced items, these hand created items have stood both the test of usage and time.

Curlicued gates were heavily featured from many decades. Some of my favourites were ones that looked so modern yet when we looked at the labels, were actually made in the 1500’s.

Eventually we got to the Jewellery exhibition and the very first piece caught my eye and I was blown away. This impression just increased as we moved further into the displays; diamonds, coral, pearls, gold and all manner of sparkly things as far as the eye could see.

I literally couldn’t stop taking photographs. When it came to download my pictures, I think there were over 400 snaps in just this one room.

My favourite pieces include the Ruby Flower, Bow Necklace, the tiny crown and a large sapphire necklace. Smita and I discussed what ONE piece of jewellery would we have if give the opportunity to own just one piece.

Mine was something that really surprised me; an opal necklace which just ‘talked’ to me. Even now, looking over the multitude of pictures, my eyes keep going back to the luminescence of the Opals and the surrounding gemstones.

I would love to know just how much the piece is worth, and its provenance.

After gushing over the Jewellery, we wanted to visit the exhibits related to Stage and Screen. Wandering down the corridor towards where we believed the designated area to be, we were surprised to hear an announcement stating that the shop would be closing at 5:15pm.

I remarked to Smita that it was a strange announcement as it was still early in the afternoon. When Smita checked her watch, it was 5:10pm!

We were generally gobsmacked at this. Over six hours had been spent wandering in and out of the displays and our plans to wander around the City were left far behind, given that we needed to pick up our tickets from the box office after 6pm and we hadn’t eaten anything yet.

Clearly it was time to leave the museum even though we hadn’t seen everything we had on our list.

I guess that means we will just have to go and visit again!

Till next time,

SPSG xxx