Back from Blighty

Managed to get back from London despite the best efforts of Eurostar (services cancelled on the day I was due to travel back with them - and I was lucky to get there on Friday when a later train got stuck in the tunnel for 12 hours!) and British Airways (which luckily called off a proposed strike but flight was delayed for nearly 4 hours, 3 spent waiting in the plane for de-icing..)!

I went there mainly to see the exhibition "Maharaja - The Splendour of India's Royal Courts" at the V&A, which ends in London on 17 Jan but will then be going to Munich. I heartily recommend it especially to anyone who likes jewellery - I thought the most stunning item on display was the emerald belt of Maharaja Sher Singh, on loan from the Royal Collection: the photo here doesn't really do it justice, each of the emeralds is the size of a small bar of soap! I hate to think what any Indian visitors felt about the amount of loot on display that was basically snaffled by the East India Company. Anyway, I was reminded that one of these days I must go to Doha to visit the Museum of Islamic Art, which must have a stunning collection of Mughal jewellery, from what I have seen on loan at this exhibition and a previous one in Antwerp.

Photography wasn't allowed at the exhibition, but elsewhere in the museum I was rather taken by this Victorian "powder room":

The tiles incorporate the logo of the V&A plus crown, lion and unicorn which presumably refer to Queen Victoria

















and an installation in the courtyard (John Madejski Garden) called "Mirror Mirror", by Jason Bruges Studio (more pics here).