Silver and Furniture: Aesthetics and Value from the Middle Ages to Now

A joint symposium with The Furniture History Society and The Silver Society

Live and live-streamed via Zoom. The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecure Theatre, V&A

This one day collaborative symposium explores the relationship between furniture and silver in terms of valuing, owning, describing and making. Furniture displays and stores silver; how did the two combine in princely, ecclesiastical, domestic and retail settings, and how did viewers react? Do collectors prize silver in its native or worked state, in terms of its place of origin, as they might a rare wood? What prominence do artists give furniture and silver in paintings, and how does furniture frame depictions of metalwork? How do inventories and chronicles describe silver and associated furnishings? Did designers and manufacturers of silver and furniture work collaboratively, or mutually influence each other? Did all societies across the globe value these materials equally, and has their relative importance and material worth fluctuated over the centuries?

PROGRAMME

10:00 – 10:30 am Registration

10:30 – 10:35 am Welcome by Sir Jonathan Marsden, Chairman, Furniture History Society and Dr Kirstin Kennedy, Chairman, The Silver Society

Session One

Moderated by Dr Kirstin Kennedy

10:35 – 11:05 am KEYNOTE: Deep Storage: Securing German Silver, c. 1630–1648

Dr Allison Stielau, Lecturer in Early Modern Art, University College London

11:05 – 11:25 am Looking at Silver in Pieter Gerritsz Roestraeten’s (ca.1630-1700) ‘Tea Still Lifes’

Evelyn Earl, Wolfson Scholar and PhD candidate in History of Art, University College London

11:25 – 11:45 am Q & A

11:45-11:55 am SHORT BREAK

Session Two

Moderated by Gareth Harris, President, The Silver Society

11:55 am – 12:15 pm Eighteenth-Century Panelling: A Material and Contextual Approach to Argentures (Silver Leaf)

Eva Robert Szewczyk, PhD candidate in Art History, École du Louvre and Aix Marseille University

Stéphanie Courtier, Head of Gilded Wood Restoration, Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France

12:15 – 12:35 pm Silver and the Moon: Kingship, Love and Illusion in the Courtly Interior in South Asia

Dr Esther Schmidt, Founding Director of the Centre for Historic Houses of India and Associate Professor of Architectural History, Global Design History and Heritage Studies at OP Jindal Global University

12:35 – 12:55 pm The Baroque Silver Furniture Pieces of Prince Paul I Esterházy (1635–1713): Lost and Found Over the Centuries

Dr Florian Bayer, Director, Esterházy Foundation, Austria

12:55 – 1:10 pm Q & A

1:10 – 2:10 LUNCH BREAK (lunch not included)

2:10 - 2:15 pm Welcome back and introduction

Session Three

Moderated by Dr Amy Lim, Co-Chair, Events Committee, Furniture History Society

2:15 – 2:45 pm KEYNOTE Gleaming Gold: The Integral Role of the Gold and Silver Laceman in Furnishing Decoration

Annabel Westman, Textile historian and consultant

2:45 – 3:05 pm Craftsmanship and Collaboration at the Court of Dresden: An Overview of the Evidence Embedded in Crown Princess and Queen Maria Josepha’s Privy Purse, 1719-57

Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, Independent scholar, Curator and Educator

3:05 – 3:25 pm ‘When ‘tis unfit for the King’s use’: Royal Perquisites and their Visibility in the Devonshire Collection

Katherine Hardwick-Kulpa, Assistant Curator of the Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth

3:25 – 3:40 pm Q & A

3:40 – 4:10 BREAK FOR TEA

Session Four

Moderated by Dr Tessa Murdoch FSA, Independent Curatorial and Editorial Consultant and Chair of Trustees, Huguenot Museum

4:10 – 4:30 pm Silver dressing table sets from the collection of Marjorie Merriweather Post and their relationship to furniture in the collection of Hillwood, Washington D.C.

Dr Wilfried Zeisler, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

4:30 – 4:50 pm German Eighteenth Century ‘Toilet Services’: Treasures on the Move?

Dr Heike Zech, Deputy Director, Curator of Decorative Arts before 1800 and the History of Crafts at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum

4:50 – 5:10 pm Q & A and closing remarks

Picture credit:

Queen Charlotte with her Two Eldest Sons

1764 by Johan Joseph Zoffany (Frankfurt 1733-London 1810), oil on canvas. The Royal Collection Trust.