Placement report: Collections and Research Work Placement
BLOG CHASE Work Placement
Victoria and Albert Museum
Talitha Maria G. Schepers ~ The Courtauld Institute of Art
On the first day of my six-month CHASE work placement at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, I was asked to update the object records of the Ottoman cushion covers collection in the museum’s Collection Management System (CMS) (Fig. 1). From that moment onwards, I would encounter each day a string of intriguing objects. One such object was a round leather item decorated with a red and green flower design, trimmed with a green fringe and an assortment of different-sized coloured ribbons (Fig. 2). While photographing this object I speculated about its function, thinking it was an elaborately ornamented bonnet with too little headspace. A quick look at CMS, however, told me that the object in question was in fact a nineteenth-century Hungarian leather tobacco pouch. As my PhD research focuses on works on paper made by sixteenth-century Netherlandish artists who travelled in a Habsburg diplomatic context to the Ottoman Empire, I rarely come in direct contact with the objects depicted in these artworks, such as costumes, textiles, ceramics, jewellery, metalwork, and so on. It is precisely for this reason that I wanted to undertake a work placement at the V&A, where I could learn about these objects produced in the former Ottoman dominions, like the tobacco pouch, while gaining first-hand work experience in a museum.
Fig. 1: Cushion Cover, Turkey (Bursa), 1625-1650, 423-1889. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 2: Tobacco pouch, Hungary, 1880s, 924-1883.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
My placement was divided into two projects. I spent one month at the Middle East Section of the Asian Department, where I assisted Senior Curator Tim Stanley and Curator Mariam Rosser-Owen by updating object records – such as the Ottoman cushion covers – and inserting museum labels for the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art into CMS. Going through these records, I gained a deeper understanding both of the individual objects and of the collection as a whole. In addition, I attended meetings on future exhibition projects as well as events organized by the museum’s Research Department.
I spent the rest of my work placement at Blythe House in West Kensington where I helped Ruby Hodgson’s Collections Move Team in the preparations for the decant of the V&A stores (over 260.000 objects and 350.000 library items) from Blythe House to a new purpose-built Collections and Research Centre at V&A East. Together with Collection Move Officer (CMO) Alice Ridgway, I was responsible for the auditing, photographing, and barcoding of the World Dress collection, which includes the abovementioned tobacco pouch.
Consisting of circa 5288 objects, the World Dress collection encompasses textiles, clothes and accessories from across the globe and different time periods. Deep and broad, the variety of objects range in size, shape and material from small fragments, belts, headgear and shoes over complex robes, dresses and complete costumes to commemorative fabrics, valances, towels, carpets and metre-long tent fabrics (Figs 3-9).
Fig. 3: Embroidered panel, Peru (Paracas peninsula), 500-100 BC, T.71-1933.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 4: Cap, Croatia, 1800s, T.110-1971.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 5: Robe, Nigeria, 1900-1925, CIRC.125-1966.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 6: Saddle cover, North Africa, ca. 1850, T.442-1971.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 7: Dress, Skopska Cma Gora, 1870-1899, T.264-1990.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 8: Jacket, Greece, 1800s, T.207-1922.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Moving this large collection takes careful organization and many interlocking steps. The first task is to confirm that an object is in its recorded location (auditing). At this point, we assess the condition of the object and determine whether it needs treatment (rehousing and/or conservation) before it can be safely relocated. An interesting example is a large-size painted bark cloth from Samoa which needed to be humidified by the textile conservators before it could be rehoused on a larger roll (Fig. 10).
A second step was to take a record shot of each object (Fig. 11). Most of the World Dress collection has never been photographed before and the few photos available were often old black-and-white images. Thus, I gained first-hand experience in setting up a photography studio, changing light and camera settings, adding metadata and uploading images to CMS. As all the images will eventually become searchable on the museum’s website, the decant has proven to be a unique opportunity to visually share the stores’ collection with the general public. Finally, we provided each part of an object with an individual barcode, which will enable the CMO team to track an object and its components from Blythe House to its final destination in the new storage facility.
By attending weekly CMO meetings as well as regular Textile and Fashion meetings, I gained a better understanding of the larger decant project. Besides working closely with the CMO team, I also collaborated with volunteers and staff members of the Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion, as well as with technicians, conservators, archivists and professional photographers. I also met with several textile curators and saw first-hand how they prepared the collection move from a curatorial and collection management point of view.
I strongly encourage students to apply for a CHASE work placement as part of their postgraduate development. Through the combination of both projects, I obtained a variety of transferable skills including object-handling, a working understanding of CMS, practical experience in record updating and how to capture record shots. Working in the World Dress collection also provided me with a more tactile and material understanding of textiles and costumes, which now enables me to return to my PhD chapter on Ottoman and Habsburg costume albums with new insight into the objects depicted and described.
Fig. 11: Pair of socks, Croatia/Dalmatia, 1800s, CIRC.28-1927 and CIRC.29-1927.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 9: Bed tent, Greece, 1700s, 67 to B, 68-1902. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fig. 10: Cover, Samoa, 1800s, T.57-1951. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In conclusion, the V&A Museum and Stores, where visitors, art lovers, museum professionals, scholars and art practitioners meet each other, provided a stimulating and vibrant environment in which I grew both as a future academic and professional. I will treasure forever the conversations had, the contacts made, and the ideas and experiences shared. I would like to thank everyone who made it possible for me to undertake this professionally enriching experience, especially Steven Colburn (CHASE), Joanna Woodall, Jan Loop, Elaine Tierney, Tim, Mariam, Ruby and Alice, as well as the larger curatorial team of the Middle East Section, staff and volunteers in the CMO team, the Clothworkers’ Centre and the Textile Conservation department. Thank you all for making my work placement a truly inspiring experience!