Being the first ever V&A gallery dedicated to furniture, the space will tell the story of the process of making each furniture piece and the people are behind it. The gallery will display more than 200 British and European furniture pieces from the Middle Ages to the present day. It will also exhibit the examples of American and Asian furniture and will examine in detail the range of materials and techniques employed for each piece.
Designed as part of the V&A’s Future Plan to transform the Museum through new galleries and redisplay of its collections, the new furniture gallery will showcase the furniture pieces, which have not been on display for more than 30 years including chairs, stools, tables, bureaux, chests, cabinets and wardrobes to clocks, mirrors and screens.
The gallery will exhibit works of well-known designers like Thomas Chippendale, David Roentgen, Grinling Gibbons, George Bullock, Robert Adam, Eileen Gray, Michael Thonet, Charles and Ray Eames, Ron Arad and Tom Dixon along with lesser-known names selected for their superior techniques.
Presenting a thematic range of materials and techniques, the gallery will tell the story of how furniture was made and decorated over 600 years. It will also focus on techniques of furniture making. Additional highlights include a 15th-century medieval desk cupboard which reveals how English furniture makers of the time used oak sourced from 1500 miles away, and a bureau (1780-1820) from Mexico, veneered with mother-of-pearl which would have required craftsmen to saw shells for 5,000 hours.
It will also showcase a dining chair designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1949), a gilded cassone made for the Duke of Urbino (about 1509) and a scagliola decorated table formerly at Warwick Castle (1675). A chronological display, highlighting 25 key pieces from the collection will be featured at the gallery. There will also be a newly-commissioned seating installation by contemporary designer Gitta Gschwendtner, inspired by historic pieces in the collection.
The gallery will incorporate innovative and interactive technologies such as digital labels with a touch-screen interface to provide additional content and context for each object, which is a first for the V&A. The gallery will also feature films, which will explore key techniques including joinery, boulle marquetry and digital manufacturing.
