Circulating agency: The V&A, Scotland and the multiplication of plaster casts of 'Celtic crosses'

Sally M Foster

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The creation of bespoke collections of plaster casts of ‘Celtic’ sculpture for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition and museums in Dundee in 1904/11 and Aberdeen in 1905 provide a Scottish lens on a wider phenomenon and its context: South Kensington’s role in the provinces, museums and ‘imperial localism’, burgeoning curatorial professionalism and networking, milestones in early medieval scholarship, objects as ‘archaeology’ or ‘art’, the value of replicas, and the Celtic Revival. A ‘provinces’-up approach explores practices on the ground to reveal the significance of the work of the V&A’s Circulation Department and of people that institutional histories omit, such as R. F. Martin. Exposing how the Dundee and Aberdeen art exhibitions are selectively derivative of Glasgow’s antiquarian enterprise, and the vagaries of their subsequent survival, illuminates the importance of understanding what past and present collections omit and why, as well as what they include.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)73-96
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of the History of Collections
Volume27
Issue number1
Early online date1 Apr 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2015

Keywords

  • replication
  • plaster casts
  • early medieval sculpture
  • Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums
  • The McManus, Dundee
  • Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum
  • R. F. Martin
  • Celtic revival
  • circulation department
  • Glasgow International Exhibition 1901

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