My sweetie and I spent a splendid holiday Monday with Master Paul and milady Anne, perusing the new V&A medieval galleries and then going on to see the Staffordshire hoard display at the British Museum. 

Paul and Anne live outside the Royal City, and so they squeeze as much as they can out of occasional visits, including raids on the associated bookshops (resulting in corresponding raids on wallets). There are several excellent interesting new books in both museums, cleverly priced at about £20. Doesn't sound like much until you pick up four or five of them!

The hoard display is just a small taster of the entire hoard, found just this year by a metal detectorist (no, I don't like the term either, but it's common here). Like most keen history amateurs, he did the right and honourable thing, which is to report the finds to the portable antiquities scheme, and helped the excavation of the entire collection. (The site is still a secret as it's on private land, and the landowner doesn't want the publicity.)

The hoard has been officially declared 'treasure' which means it's given a market price, and now museums and collectors are free to bid on it, at £3.285 million, with the proceeds divided between the finder and the landowner.

The local museums in Birmingham are hoping to keep it locally, and seem to have the support of the British Museum in this cause.
The hoard is just that - it's a collection of valuables, that look suspiciously like they've been stripped off other items. There are a number of sword and sword-belt fittings  of gold and inlaid garnet, and a large gold cross that has been folded down into scrap, and the gem fittings that might have decorated it have had their gems removed. Other bits look like riveted belt ornaments.

For small-finds geeks like Robert and me, the most interesting piece is what appears to be a domed button of gold, decorated with garnet inlay, with a large loop shank at the back. I've never seen buttons this early-period before, certainly not designed like this. The description calls it a 'scabbard boss'. I suppose we get to find out, when the analysis is done.

The photos are very good on the staffordshire hoard site (see links), so I recommend them.

The new V&A medieval galleries are...interesting, and they'll stand up to several visits, I think, and I think they may well grow on me.
They're spread over three floors, with the main one off the foyer designed a bit like a renaissance garden, with statuary and wall-mounted decor to walk around and through, and with balconies from the upper floors allowing views over the space - a bit like an italian villa.
It's feels large and airy, especially with some daylight from overhead: the impression of ample space is wonderful.

The galleries have several sheltered spaces for low-light items like textiles - mostly eccelesiastical, some other samples, plus the boar hunt tapestry has been moved down to this display from the tapestry room on the top floor.

The nooks and crannies are where you find the smaller-scale items that always intrigue me most.

Some treasures I spotted that might interest xrian :

a 'charm' rosary: that is, wooden Ave beads with  small silver 'charms', each one representing an instrument of the Passion, acting as Paternoster beads. I wrote down the museum number, and O happy day, the rosary is in the digital collection!

There are 5 Ave beads between each charm: it's dated to late 15th c/ early 16th c. I'm not sure when the convention of 10:1 become common.

Next to this one was the 'Langdale Rosary', which had 95 saints' beads - gold beads each one engraved with a different saint and their identifiying characteristics.

Wow. The V&A's online collection is really well-organised now. It used to be like pulling teeth to find anything; now you can search by location! I had the Langdale's museum number wrong, but I knew it was adjascent to the item I pulled up, so I could search other items in the same room! How cool is that.

For those who can't get to the new displays:
Medieval and renaissance room 8 - late roman, early Romanesque
Medieval and renaissance room 9  - 1200-1400 ish
Medieval and renaissance room 10 1350-1500 (includes the embroidered copes)

Room 10 has the Boar hunt tapestry, and it also has an item I've never seen before: a wool applique wall hanging, called the Tristan hanging, with a series of scenes from the Tristan & Isolde story.

The figures are crude - none of them have face details, they're just bodies and heads - but they're clearly styled for late 14th c, with high waisted women with sloping shoulders and wasp-waisted gents in short cotes and long toed shoes.

All the appliqued pieces are reinforced along their edges with leather cord, whipstitched in place. The item description calls it 'gilt leather' but any gilt is long gone. The leather strips acted more like black backstitch on a crossstitch piece, providing firm edges and draping details in gowns and fabrics.

It looks, well, crude, compared to embroidered pieces of the same period. But it might have been the best someone could afford, to give them the feel of having a nice textile wallhanging to warm their hall.

Apparently it's mentioned in Staniliand's 'Medieval embroiderers' book: check figure 11. 

I don't think we spent enough time to see all the newest displays, so there's still plenty to see on future trips.