Ardgour historic gunpowder horn on show at new V&A
A gunpowder horn dating from 1745 and belonging to a clan member of the Macleans of Ardgour is one of eight historic artefacts from the High Life Highland collections at the Highland Folk Museum and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery to have gone on show as part of the permanent displays at the newly opened V&A Dundee, writes Mark Entwistle.
Objects loaned by the Highland museums also include a woollen blanket woven by hand in the 1830s on the Isle of Lewis; a hand-crafted silver luckenbooth brooch made in the second half of the 19th century by itinerant travellers at Applecross; and a fine Inverness silver quaich made circa 1780 by local artisan Thomas Borthwick. The objects from the Highland Folk Museum are exhibited in a display about local design specialisms across the north of Scotland, celebrating the hand-crafting skills of Highland makers, including woodworking, weaving, knitting, and horn and silver working.
Hailing the new displays, Ian Murray, High Life Highland’s chief executive, commented: ‘High Life Highland is delighted to be working in partnership with V&A Dundee to bring these fascinating, very personal examples of traditional Highland craftwork to new audiences.
‘V&A Dundee attracted 27,000 visitors in its first week and is projected to welcome more than half a million visitors in its first year.
‘I am delighted that all of these visitors will benefit from the opportunity to see these special Highland objects up close, and very much hope that many will be inspired to visit the places in the Highlands where they were originally made, as well as the Highland Folk Museum and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, where HLH care for superb collections of items of a similar quality and historical significance.’
The Highland objects are shown alongside displays of furniture, textiles, metalwork, ceramics, fashion, architecture, engineering and digital design – showcasing the very best of Scottish creativity.