V&A Jewellery Gallery

Last Saturday, after a four-year renovation costing at least £7m, the V&A Museum’s jewellery gallery reopened as the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery, renamed in honour of the benefactors whose generosity allowed the work to be carried out. Designed by architect Eva Jiricna, the gallery displays 3,500 jewels from the V&A’s collection, ranging from jewelled pendants given by Queen Elizabeth I to her courtiers to work by contemporary goldsmiths and jewellers. This is one of the world's finest collection of jewels and you would have expected BBC London News to respond to the V&A's press release (CLICK), but no; it's having a long weekend (bank holiday today), so all we get is five minutes of stabbings, shootings and folks running in the rain! For a taste of what's on display, click the title link to view the Cartier 1928 Art Deco "Tutti Frutti" bandeau of Lady Mountbatten Vicereine of India.