The Glass Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

JSGT 1934 V18 T308 -T322

 The glass collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, exhibited in Room 131 on the First Floor, can claim to provide a comprehensive survey of glass in its finished forms other than those of a purely utilitarian or scientific nature, from the beginnings of the art till the middle of the 19th century. Art of pre-Christian times lies in general outside the scope of the Museum; consequently nothing like a complete representation of the glass of the Ancient World will be found at South Kensington. For a detailed study of this period it is necessary to go to the British Museum. The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses, however, a skeleton collection of ancient glass sufficient to illustrate most of the developments of the art prior to the Middle Ages, and many of the specimens under this heading are of the first quality.

Bernard Rackham