Seminar: Architects, Furniture & Patrons, c.1760 – 1815

Join us on Zoom this Wednesday the 17^th of November from 4.00pm to 7.30pm (GMT) for the third out of our five weekly autumn 2021 online courses. This week three speakers - all well known to FHS members - will consider the period, c.1760-1815

DR MEGAN ALDRICH

The Furniture Maker and the Architect in the Palladian and Neoclassical Periods

Rough preliminary drawing by Robert Adam made for publication for various items of furniture. Curtain Cornice in Grt room / Glass in small parler / Glass in great room / Glass in Eating room . Side board in Eating room and some dimensions given (in pencil). Pen and pencil on laid paper, 1774.

During the first third of the eighteenth century, British furniture production began to respond to leading developments in architectural design. Makers began to work collaboratively to provide furnishings for interiors that were designed by architects, resulting in a professionalisation of the furniture-making industry - principally in London - during the eighteenth century. This lecture will look at the changing role of furniture makers working during the Palladian (c. 1725-65) and Neoclassical (c. 1760-85) periods under the direct supervision of architects like William Kent and Robert Adam, when the individuality of workshop production was subsumed under new design imperatives and a concern for harmonious, unified interiors.

LUCY WOOD

London Furniture Makers in the time of Chippendale

Image Lucy Wood

The Pomfret Cabinet attributed to William Hallet senior (shown with painted decoration and heraldry) c. 1752-53

RUFUS BIRD

‘As refined and classical as possible': George IV and other patrons of British furniture makers in the Regency period 1800-1830

One of a pair of giltwood pier tables, supplied to George, Prince of Wales at Carlton House by Tatham, Bailey & Sanders, 1813 (RCIN 33809, Royal Collection Trust)

Furnishings in the Regency period reached a zenith of luxuriousness and expense - perhaps subsequently never matched. This was in part thanks to the use, understanding and appreciation of complicated and expensive upholstery and in part thanks to the ambitions - and wealth - of patrons. Chief among these British Maecenases of the furnishing world was George IV, who, when Prince of Wales furnished and refurnished rooms within Carlton House several times over. He then oversaw an even more ambitious programme of furnishing at Windsor Castle before his death in 1830. Other patrons of elevated noble rank followed in his wake, seeking to emulate, and in some cases exceed, the richness sought by the Prince. This talk will look at the furnishings supplied for Carlton House and Windsor Castle, the furniture makers employed by George and their designs, and will also seek to consider how Carlton House and Windsor Castle sit alongside other major British furnishing projects carried out in the first quarter of the 19th century.

BIFMO is grateful for the support of the Foyle Foundation and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

You can get further information and book tickets on the FHS Website or on Eventbrite

If you have any queries, please email: bifmo@furniturehistorysociety.org.

About the authors

Dr Megan Aldrich

Megan Aldrich is a part-time tutor in the Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford, and Hon. Editorial Secretary of the Furniture History Society. She researches aspects of antiquarian design and historicism across the areas of architecture, interiors, decorative art and design and garden history, and has published widely in these areas. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Lucy Wood

(part of the National Museums, Liverpool), and later as a Senior Curator in the Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department at the V&A. She has published widely on topics related to furniture and the history of collecting. At the Lady Lever Art Gallery she produced detailed catalogues of two aspects of the outstanding collection of (mainly) English furniture – the commodes and the upholstered items. She now works as a freelance furniture historian and consultant.

Rufus Bird

Rufus worked at the Royal Collection Trust from 2010 to 2021: where he held the post of Deputy Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art to 2017 and thereafter Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art (to 2021). In Royal Household employ he was responsible for the presentation, interpretation and conservation of all decorative arts in the Royal Collection, one of the largest private art collections in the world. Throughout this time Rufus worked on the catalogue raisonné of Chinese & Japanese works of art in the Royal Collection, published several articles in Furniture History, contributed to exhibition catalogues, co-curated the 2017-18 exhibition Charles II: Art & Power, and lectured and taught on The Attingham Trust's renowned annual study course Royal Collection Studies.

Prior to joining Royal Collection Trust, he was Director at Christie's auctioneers in London where he was responsible for English furniture sales and was involved in the cataloguing of various private collections and country house collections, including the abortive sale of the contents of Tyntesfield in 2002 and Dumfries House in 2007. Since leaving Royal Collection Trust, Rufus has joined Duke's Auctioneers in his resident county of Dorset where he is Senior Director of Heritage & Valuations and is establishing a new collection care service for private collectors and historic houses. He continues as a consultant on furniture & historic interiors to Royal Collection Trust.

Join us on Zoom this Wednesday the 17th of November from 4.00pm to 7.30pm (GMT) for the third out of our five weekly autumn 2021 online courses. This week three speakers - all well known to FHS members - will consider the period, c.1760-1815