Spent the last 2-days gathering data, transferring all the records on Blackwork from the V&A database into my own spreadsheet and file organisation (a horrid experience due to very slow VPN access). I wanted to gather all the images I could to try and begin to get an overview. This evening, I trawled through public image libraries looking for portraits. I had this notion I could use the portraits to track the stylistic change in Blackwork. I have not even begun to sort through it all, but I am already seeing a definite evolution! This is exciting, if I can build a chronology and then match the object up, I think I might be able to get more accurate dates for the objects (all the V&A objects have very rough broad dating)

I think making sketches of the stylistic evolution might help me to visualise this chronology.