The V&A's latest public contribution is the magnificent new Medieval and Renaissance galleries, which open in time for Christmas. They're the most recent in a series of important and hugely popular new displays created over the past 10 years, which started with the British Galleries in 2001.
Their scope is vast: European artistic production 300-1600. Thus, every variety of artwork is on display, from tapestry to glassware and the Gloucester Candlestick to the chancel of the convent church of Santa Chiara (the former sculpture gallery in which this stands has been subsumed into the new display).
The project has been underpinned by a great deal of fresh research and has taken seven years and £30 million to realise. Given the richness of the V&A collection, and its past successes, the public can reasonably have the very highest expectations. A lavishly produced catalogue, Medieval and Renaissance Art: People and Possessions, has been published to accompany the new display.
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Dorfold Hall: The 'most neat and beautiful house of brick' that owes its existence to a desperate effort to secure successionDorfold Hall in Cheshire is an outstanding Jacobean house, but was an unexpected product of dynastic disappointment. John Goodall examines the remarkable circumstances of its construction; photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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The London house where Rolls-Royce's co-founder Charles Rolls tinkered with his very first car is for sale at £17 millionCharles Rolls, the engineer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce, got his hands dirty when using the stables of this fine London home as a makeshift garage. Annabel Dixon reports.
