The Victoria and Albert Museum was founded in 1852 as a pioneering museum of applied and decorative arts and its incomparable holdings include ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, furniture and woodwork, sculpture, textiles, paintings, drawings and prints. More than 250 works, giving an overview of this vast collection, are illustrated and discussed in A Grand Design, which is published in conjunction with a major exhibition. A Grand Design examines the history of one of the world's great museums, the formation of its collections and the way these have been constantly re-interpreted through its displays. Following its foundation in the wake of the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Museum was concerned especially with "modern manufactures" in an attempt to raise standards of design among British manufacturers. But from the start it was collecting older works as models of good design and, through the development and presentation of its collections, played a decisive role in the establishment of the...