V&A Tour Guide Highlights Bequests: From Diamond Sprays to a Quack Doctor's Statue

A V&A tour guide, reflecting on 12 years of service, has organized free tours during Legacy Weeks to showcase objects acquired through bequests. The tours highlight the importance of legacies in enriching and conserving the museum's collection. Three notable objects are featured: Lady Cory's diamond spray, a Turkish nephrite jade tankard, and a statue of Joshua Ward by Agostino Carlini. Lady Cory (1866–1947), a collector of 18th and 19th century jewellery, left her entire diamond collection to the V&A, including a spray of flowers made around 1850, known as a 'Trembler' for its spring-mounted flowers. Geoffrey Ackerman, a history student, left 6% of his residuary estate to the V&A, which, combined with support from V&A members and the HM Government's Acceptance in Lieu Scheme, enabled the acquisition of a late 16th-century nephrite jade tankard decorated with gold wire, rubies, and emeralds, likely made for the Sultan at Topkapi Palace. Hugh Phillips (1886–1972), an antique dealer and writer, left a bequest for 18th-century works, funding the purchase of Carlini's life-sized statue of Joshua Ward (1685–1761), a notorious 'quack' doctor. The statue, commissioned by Ward for Westminster Abbey, was instead given to the Royal Society of Arts before the V&A acquired it in 1991. The free tour is scheduled for Thursday 15th October at 14:30 during Legacy Week.