Collection: Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Royal Pavilion

  The history of our organisation starts with the purchase of the iconic Royal Pavilion (built for George IV in the early 19th Century) by the Corporation of Brighton in 1850 after Queen Victoria

  chose the Isle of Wight for her seaside home. The town’s policy of restoring and preserving the Pavilion was pursued from this time, with the Pavilion being used for a range of different civic purposes, the most famous of which was its role as a hospital in the First World War.

  After the Second World War the state rooms were furnished for the Regency exhibition in 1947 and in the 1970s they were opened all year round. Today the restored rooms display many items which formed part of the palace’s original furnishings on loan from the Royal Collection and other items from the early 19th century.

  Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

  The origins of Brighton Museum & Art Gallery can be traced back to the Royal Pavilion when, following the purchase of the Estate in 1850, an annual show of paintings was organised and from the hanging fees it was hoped to form the basis of a permanent fine art collection. Further rooms in the Royal Pavilion were set aside for use as a museum displaying local private collections by worthies who had formerly been members of the old literary and scientific society. Collections were transferred to this Museum from the old Literary Institute. It was called The Brighton and Sussex Museum and was opened in 1861 by Richard Owen the famous Victorian naturalist and included Willett’s collection of Chalk Fossils – the first donation to the Museum – and Henry Turrell’s Mineral collection.

  By the early 1870s the collections had outgrown the available space in the Pavilion and the Corporation opened the purpose-built Brighton Museum & Art Gallery in 1873 on the site of Queen Adelaide’s stables on the Royal Pavilion Estate.

  The Booth Museum of Natural History

  The Booth Museum, built in 1874 by Edward Thomas Booth (1840-1890) to house his personal and extraordinary collection of British birds, was bequeathed to the Corporation in 1890. RPM’s extensive natural history collections were relocated to the Booth from Brighton Museum in the 1970s.

  Preston Manor

  Preston Manor and its contents were bequeathed to the Corporation in 1932 following the deaths of its owners Sir Charles and Lady Thomas-Stanford. It opened as a museum in 1933, and it’s displays were enhanced in 1939 by a bequest of furniture, silver, porcelain and other items from the collection of designer and furniture historian Percy Macquoid. Today it is presented as an intriguing Edwardian House based how it would have looked before the First World War.

  Hove Museum & Art Gallery

  Hove Museum, once Brooker Hall, was purchased by Hove Corporation in 1926 and opened to the public as a Museum and Art Gallery in 1927. Today its family-friendly galleries display Royal Pavilion & Museums toys in the Wizard’s Attic, craft collections, material related pioneering Hove film-makers of the 1890s and 1900s, local history and fine art.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  RPM is responsible for over one million artefacts, the collections comprising Fine and Decorative Arts, Local, Social and Oral History, Archaeology, Costume, Toys, Coins, Weapons, Photographs, Film, Musical Instruments, the Natural Sciences, World Art, Egyptology, Rare Book collections and archives. Three of the collections have Designated status (recognised to be of national and international significance); these are Decorative Art, World Art and Natural Sciences.

  Collections held by RPM:

  Decorative Art

  Designated collection comprising 17^th century – present day British, European and American applied art and industrial design. This includes furniture and furnishing textiles, clocks and watches, metalwork and jewellery, glass and ceramics, also some Oriental and Islamic wares made for the European market and contemporary craft. The contemporary craft collection includes the Arts Council (South East) Craft Collection, comprising work in all media, by makers living or working in the South East region.

  Natural Sciences

  Designated collection covering local, British and international zoological, botanical and geological material, manuscripts and records. This includes The Booth Collection of British Birds, insects (especially Lepidoptera), osteology, birds’ eggs, herbaria, molluscs and fossils, and The Booth Book Collection.

  World Art

  Designated collection of objects and textiles c12th century – present day, with the vast majority of the collection spanning the period 1850-1950 and relating to Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Includes some archaeological and European folk material.

  Musical Instruments

  Instruments from the 18th-20th century. This collection comprises European instruments c1780- 1830, including a large collection of whistles, and ethnographic instruments c1850-2000 from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

  Fine Art

  European old masters in particular from the Italian, Netherlandish, German and French schools, 18th-20th century British watercolours, 17th-20th century European prints, 16^th century – present day British oil paintings, and the Heyer Bequest of 20th century American Post Abstract Expressionist paintings. Also includes Regency drawings, watercolours and caricatures in relation to the Royal Pavilion and topographical material relating to the history of Brighton, Hove and the immediate locality, including renowned personalities and events.

  Costume and Textiles

  British, West European and North American men’s, women’s and children’s costume and accessories from the mid-18th century to the present day, costumes from Les Ballets (1933) and some European national costumes. Needlework, samplers and quilts from the mid-18th century to the present day.

  Toys and Juvenilia

  18^th century – present day toys, games, dolls’ houses and dolls including examples that represent particular cultural or ethnic groups. A small collection of nursery equipment and ephemera associated with childhood. A large proportion of this collection was acquired by the National Toy Museum & Institute of Play.

  Film and Media

  Lanterns and lantern slides. Material and equipment relating to film making in England and the the cinema in south east England, 1896 to the present day.

  Edged Weapons and Firearms

  14th-20th century British and European material. Firearms comprise mid-19th century sporting and other civilian firearms including target rifles, hunting rifles, and a representative collection of British revolvers.

  Local and Social History

  18^th century – present day artefacts, ephemera, photographs and negatives, British 18th-20th century domestic, agricultural and manufacturing tools and equipment, and vehicles. Also includes reference material, books, journals, newspapers, ephemera and documentary archival material.

  Archaeology

  The archaeology collection is extensive and includes excavated material and stray finds of all periods from the Palaeolithic to post-Medieval predominantly from Brighton & Hove, and Sussex. Strengths include regionally important ice-age collections, internationally important material from Whitehawk Neolithic causewayed enclosure, and internationally important Bronze Age material, including the Hove Amber Cup assemblage and hoards from the area immediately around Brighton & Hove.

  Egyptology

  Egyptology from the pre-Dynastic era to the Roman period. There are approximately 1,700 individual objects represented, some of which relate to excavations by the famous Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie. The collection also includes a very important group of objects from Nubia/Sudan.

  Numismatics

  Classical Greek and Roman, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval material through to the present, including Iron Age and Roman coins, British coins of all periods, as well as those from British overseas territories, and an important collection of trade tokens from Sussex, as well as others from the rest of Britain. The medal collection includes commemorative medals from Sussex, the majority of which relate to Brighton & Hove, commemorative medals marking events of national importance and some British service medals.

  Oral History

  Sound recordings made, commissioned or supported by RPM (oral histories and field recordings), or made privately by individuals or organisations acquired by donation, bequest, loan or purchase which relate to our current collections. The current sound collection includes recordings relating to archaeology, natural sciences, local and social history, fine art, world art, costume, decorative art, toys, film and media, Preston Manor, the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Museum, the Booth Museum and Hove Museum. The collection also holds the BBC Radio Brighton archive and local community oral history projects. Formats include wax cylinder, open reel, cassette, mini disc, CD, digital file and video.

  Books and other Publications

  Books, newspapers, and other publications can be found throughout our collections. Where such items are acquired as narrative and documentary information that supports knowledge about our collections, these should be considered part of RPM’s archive.

  The Royal Pavilion

  This collection includes original artefacts from the Royal Pavilion, Regency decorative and fine art relevant to the refurbishment of the Royal Pavilion, and documents, pictures and other items relating to the history, development, occupants and workers of the Royal Pavilion estate (up to the present time).

  Preston Manor

  This collection contains items formerly in the house or in the possession of the Stanford family (primarily before the house was acquired by BHCC in 1932), topographical material, photographs, oral histories and written testimonies relating to Preston Manor, the gardens and the occupants.

  Learning Collection

  This collection is formed from accessioned and non-accessioned material from across all RPM’s collections and is managed by the Learning Team as a collection of objects for use in learning sessions on site. Some objects are acquired for the Learning Collection on the understanding that they will undergo a certain amount of wear and tear.

  Formal learning sessions for schools are co-developed with local teachers to ensure we meet the needs of the National Curriculum and wider issues surrounding children and young people. These place-based learning sessions draw on stories and collections that encourage a sense of belonging. Sessions currently include Ancient Egypt, The Stone Age, The Romans, The Victorians, Dragons, Murder Mysteries and Local History.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC