Dolls and toys of The Museum of Childhood

If you are in London with kids, or do not mind to feel like a kid for a while again , go to the Museum of Childhood. This branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum is devoted to everything that is connected with this tender age: furniture - from the old cradle of 1641 to the modern IKEA tables and chairs, children's clothing - from the nappies of the 16th century to the modern jeans, and of course toys - wooden horses, tin soldiers, stuffed bears, dogs, dolls, clock-work monkeys, puppets of various designs, moving trains, bricks, and computer games. Bring some 20-pence coins because there are many mechanical exhibits in the museum , whose work can be seen with the help of a coin.

What I saw at the V&A museum

Altar piece, Florence, 1500-1510

My second favorite museum in London, after the British museum, is the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is the world's largest (more than 4 million items) and greatest museum of applied arts and design. Everyone can find something to his/her liking in this museum: pottery, clothing, jewelry, furniture, paintings, sculpture.

What I saw at the British Museum

The British Museum in London is one of the largest in the world. Its collection numbers more than 7 million items, which are exhibited in 95 galleries. To go through all the halls, it took me 4 days. If you are a tourist then you have just a few hours or maybe one day. So before going to the museum, it is better to think of what you really want to see, what will be interesting to you personally. And then coming to the place all you'll have do is to take the museum map at the entrance and go straight to the gallery you are interested in, and not to wander around many rooms of the museum.

The Art of African masks

The British and the Horniman museums has quite an interesting and impressive collection of African mask. After seeing it I wanted to know more about this form of ancient art. Originally the masks had a specific purpose and were much more than decorative objects. Masks can represent spirits, animals or mythological beings. Sometimes people wear masks with a costume as part of a ritual or performance. The purpose of a mask is not only to conceal the identity of the wearer, it actually creates a new identity - one from the spirit world. Many Africans use masks in private initiations, in the rituals of secret societies and in coming of age ceremonies. People use masks in public ceremonies such as funerals, harvest celebrations, acts of thanksgiving and in other rituals.

The art of Japanese netsuke

For the first time I heard about the netsuke in my childhood, in a Russian film. The plot of the film was forgotten with time but the unusual word and the figures that the word represented remained in my memory. These miniature sculptures amazed me with precision of work, small details, lively images, elegance.

Indian Art from the British Museum

The Indian collection of the British museum include pottery, paintings, traditional script work, daggers and a large display of sculptures among which there are carvings from the Great Stupa at Amaravati. Some objects in the collection date from the earliest civilizations of the Indus valley and are about 7000 years old. India is also represented in the money collections, with a large number of coins dating back to the 4th century BC.

Ravana, Tamil Nadu, 17c

British museum's collection of the Nepalese art

The British museum has a few pieces of art from Nepal, mostly dating 18-19 century. The most impressive from my point of view is this altar screen of metal set with bone, shell, precious and semi-precious stones (18-19c).