Remembering the V&A

Wow! It's been a year since I posted on this blog! Believe me, I haven't gone that long without thinking of London, but this is the first time in a while that I've had a London reminiscence that called the blog to mind.

PAPERWEIGHTS!

Yes, I was recently in a museum that had a whole room full of paperweights, and I couldn't help but remember the wonderful Victoria and Albert Museum. How many rooms full of curious and wonderful objects does it have?! 

The paperweight room is in the basement of the Chicago Art Institute, which I was lucky enough to visit on a recent trip to that fine city. And while it certainly wasn't as voluminous as the lace room or the silver gallery in the V&A, it was just as much fun and just as delightful a discovery.

Not only are the paperweights on display gorgeous objects worthy of being in an art museum...

...but the displays also provided some intriguing information about how they are made...

What an unexpected, but utterly cool, collection of objects! But that's not the only quirky, V&A-like set of displays that the Art Institute offers.

Also in the basement is their collection of tiny rooms...which is just what it sounds like. A bunch of dollhouse rooms that are exquisitely decorated in a variety of period styles. So neat!

The displays are fronted with glass, so it was hard to get good pictures. But, take it from me, this little gallery is well worth the time to visit.

So much detail! And how did they make it seem like sunlight was actually entering through the tiny windows and doors?! Amazing!

I'll close with a particularly haunting image from the Institute's main collection (it's famous for its Impressionist collection)...another London memory:

I'll have more about the wonderful painting we saw here in a future post over on Hometown Tourist.