Featherwork

With filigreed Kongo ivories, gilded Qing astrolabes, Brazilian featherwork, Sri Lankan rock-crystal, mother-of-pearl Mughal inlay and life-size Portuguese carvings of angels and saints, it has something even for someone who has seen everything before.

The importation of New World featherworks into Europe was a journey of dilution, degradation and eventual loss of meaning - a banal Disneyfication of indigenous dignity.