Dr. Samuel Wittwer, director of Palaces and Collections at the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg

In the representation of the Prussian monarchs Berlin porcelain played quite a role. Since the foundation of KPM in 1763 vases and other decorative objects were displayed in significant places at the royal palaces to help in proclaiming the king’s glory. On the table, services had to convince guests of the royal taste and widely observed state gifts to other courts served as ambassadors of power – in a highly sophisticated atmosphere of nuances. What a perfect trap for a king to make a fool of himself, if these porcelains turned out to be slightly off-key and missing the intended allusion! But who were the advisers to preserve the crown from ridiculousness? And how were they involved? The lecture shows some outstanding examples and the story of their genesis.

Brian Haughton was already a successful dealer when in 1982 he launched the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar, and today we celebrate his achievement over forty years. He would transform the world of the ceramics dealer, collector, curator and scholar by bringing together in one place each June a new, radical and magical combination of some of the best dealers in the world, strict vetting procedures, academic lectures given by an international range of experts, and a sense of glamour, fun and camaraderie. This conversation will explore how Brian developed such a special vision, how he and his wife, Anna, delivered it year after year, what impact it has had on the decorative arts in recent generations, and how they organised annually four international Art & Antique Fairs in New York, one in Dubai & Art Antiques London.

Dr Amin Jaffer

Whether an emperor portrayed in a Mughal miniature or a maharaja depicting in a Victorian studio photograph, rulers in India were typically characterised by the abundance of jewels they wore. The proliferation of precious stones was not only a reflection of wealth – and therefore authority – but also an evocation of the cosmic power of certain gemstones by virtue of their association with planetary forces. In a survey of Indian kingship from ancient times to the early modern period, Amin Jaffer will explore the importance attributed to gems in the articulation of power, drawing on ancient treatises about the power of precious stones, court memoirs and contemporary accounts.

Professor Timothy Wilson

The period covered by this talk covers the golden age of Renaissance art and culture in Florence, from the rise to political dominance of the Medici family in the person of Cosimo "il vecchio" in 1434 to the appointment of Alessandro de' Medici as first Duke of Florence in 1532. Successive members of the Medici family, notably Lorenzo "il magnifico" were personally interested in ceramics. The most brilliant factory associated with the Medici was at their villa of Cafaggiolo, north of Florence; while the town of Montelupo, on the Arno, became one of the most productive of all commercial maiolica centres.

Dr Helen Jacobsen, Executive Director of the Attingham Trust

Diplomatic gifts have always played a central role in international relations, despite – or perhaps because of - the ambiguity between gift and bribe. Hand-in-hand with France’s rise as a centre of fashion and supremacy in the decorative arts came an added reliance on luxury goods such as tapestries, carpets, gold boxes and porcelain as part of the diplomatic language. It was, however, a very structured language and many misunderstandings have arisen since - after all, who doesn’t love a good royal provenance? This talk will look at some of the beautiful works that were gifted and the context in which they were presented, hoping to shine a light into the highly prescribed world of diplomatic etiquette.

Dr. Julia Weber, Director of the Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Even a century after its invention, the so-called Böttger stoneware was still referred to as the first Saxon porcelain. For contemporaries, it was far more than a particularly fine red stoneware that offered entirely new possibilities for refinement due to the density and hardness of its body and thus could advance to become luxury goods of the first rank. Born out of the royal art of alchemy, the new material was associated with ideas of mercantilist success and political ambitions, which explain why Augustus the Strong held on to Böttger stoneware even after his sensational white porcelain had long since won the favour of buyers.

The lecture will begin by looking at collections of Böttger stoneware in the 18th century to find out why this specific material was valued and how it was classified in different contexts. Special attention will be paid to the promotion of "red porcelain" by Augustus the Strong, which will be traced on the basis of individual pieces and partly new archival sources.

Gregory Irvine, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Research Department, V&A

Twelfth century Japan was riven by civil war but in 1185 the samurai warlord Minamoto Yoritomo defeated his rivals and established his military government at Kamakura. In 1192 Yoritomo was appointed Shōgun by the Emperor Go-Toba, thereby beginning nearly 700 years of military rule of Japan.

By 1615 the Tokugawa clan had unified warring Japan and art and culture flourished under their shōgunate. They formed courts where leisurely accomplishments such as calligraphy were deemed appropriate, and they adopted courtly rituals and styles of clothing far removed from their military past.

The peaceful Edo period (1615-1868) saw developments in the production of porcelain, lacquer, metalwork, and textiles which found a ready market amongst the samurai elite who had become significant patrons. It also created an environment in which the merchant classes prospered, and they would increasingly become the new patrons of the arts.

The lecture will look at the exquisite objects created for these patrons.

Dr Timothy Schroder, Dlitt, FSA. Former curator

Gifts have always been an integral part of diplomacy and were presented by sovereigns to visiting ambassadors as a complement to his royal master and as a means of sweetening the passage of a treaty. The commonest fate of those in gold or silver was to be melted down and turned into cash, but occasionally they have survived, although sometimes transformed into something else and inscribed with a record of the original gift. The favoured form of these gifts changed over time. In the sixteenth century it was common to present a departing ambassador with a gold chain; in the seventeenth the gift would often take the form of a cup, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth the snuff box was the favoured form. But in whatever form, they are a striking reminder of the importance of the ambassadorial role at a time when historic and binding decisions had to be taken without any possibility of the ambassador referring back to his government for new instructions.

Dr. Joanna Marschner

Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), the wife of King George II, enjoyed variously the titles Princess of Wales, Queen Consort, Electress of Hanover, and Regent. Educated at the culturally ambitious courts in Berlin and Hanover, she arrived in London in 1714, in the wake of the Hanoverian Succession, determined to play her part in embedding the new regime. As commissioner, patron and promoter she would engage with artists, architects and musicians, scientists, philosophers and theologians, as well as the leading politicians of the day. Sir Robert Walpole claimed: ‘ madam, without you I can do nothing …. ‘. How did a woman of power and influence construct her image in the early eighteenth century? How were Caroline’s sartorial choices informed by political agenda? How did her involvement with the medical world shape her attitudes to dress, make-up and hygiene?

Robin Emmerson

The bedroom of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia in her Summer Palace of Tsarskoe Selo was decorated with specially commissioned tablets of Wedgwood jasper. The room was destroyed in the Second World War and is now known only from photographs. A close reading of correspondence in the V&A/Wedgwood Archive reveals that the Empress’s architect Charles Cameron initially ordered more and larger jasper tablets than were finally installed. Wedgwood struggled with the order, making the largest jasper tablets he would ever make, but Cameron lost patience and reduced the size and number of tablets in the order to enable Wedgwood to deliver them without further delay. Wedgwood’s largest jasper tablets, made for the Empress, were therefore not sent to St Petersburg and destroyed with the rest of the bedroom. Instead they survive in the Lady Lever Art Gallery near Liverpool, and in Houston, Texas.

Ivan Day

The starting points for this talk is the 1740 drawing Wedding Night by Marcellus Laroon (image) and an anonymous poem The Progress of Matrimony (London: 1733) - both refer to the custom of bedding the bride. Posset and posset pots were a major feature.

Rose Kerr

In traditional China, well-born women lived quite separate lives to men. They occupied quarters in the rear of the house and were closely supervised outside its walls. Their secluded existence was pampered and opulent, they dressed themselves well, and surrounded themselves with luxury products. Based on the shapes and function of pieces, and on their decoration, it is possible to single out products manufactured specifically for women. This lecture will concentrate on two periods in China’s long history: the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It will discuss porcelain, jade, bronze, lacquer and fine silk garments.

Christiane Ernek-van der Goes M.A.

On the occasion of the royal wedding in 1719, Augustus the Strong (1670-1733) commissioned the reconstruction of the State Apartment in the Dresden Residence castle. Since these were the rooms where the representation of power, rank and future aspirations took place, only the best of the best was good enough. Besides splendid textiles and extended mirror-glasses, Boulle-marquetry furniture were considered appropriate for this effort. The State bedroom, though not being part of the official ceremony, was planned generously and with extremely rich furnishings. Only a few months after the installation, the original interior decoration of the State apartment was visually documented by Raymond Leplat. Although the drawings were meant to illustrate the festivities, they enable us moreover to explore the interiors in astonishing detail. The talk will give insight into the history of the Dresden State apartment - especially the State bedchamber – spanning from the construction in 1718/1719 until the still ongoing reconstruction. Special focus will be on the lavish interior decoration and its role in staging the representation of rank and power of Augustus the Strong.

Dr Katharina Hantschmann

Dogs, bigger or smaller, are to be found on many portraits of the past centuries, both on representative ones of important personalities like rulers as also on more private paintings and portraits of children. Dogs might therefore symbolize fidelity, alertness, power and strength, but also show part of the real life. At court dogs were close friends and faithful companions not only for the hunt, but were to be found everywhere and any time, even in the bedrooms and the boudoirs. There they have always been the involuntary witnesses of human flirtation or the beloved consoler and substitute. The lecture will look closely on Meissen porcelain groups where dogs often indicate the erotic component of the scene. Especially pugs, the favourite lapdogs of the 18th century, sometimes behaved jealously and aggressively at their human competitors. The demand for porcelain pugs increased after the foundation of the secret humanistic Order of the Pug.

Bertrand Rondot

At the heart of the château of Versailles stands the King’s Bedchamber, a political statement as much as a room to be lived in. In the complex but short history of the royal residence ending in October 1789, the organization of the royal bedchambers has remained a key issue through the reigns of the three kings, Louis, Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. The creation of bedrooms for the king reflects the evolution of the Court and of the French Monarchy, from the Grand Siècle to the Age of Enlightenment. Within the central part of the palace different rooms were allocated for the king’s sleep - from the very public one in the state apartments in the tradition of the French Monarchy to the most personal one in his private apartments. But the creation of such spaces, reflecting both the official and intimate lives of the king, was far from simple in a palace whose architecture was the result of compromise, invaded everyday by thousands of courtiers and visitors.

Dr. Simon Thurley, CBE

When Charles II returned to London in 1660 amongst his first acts was to rebuild the bedchambers in his royal palaces on a French model. It is normally assumed that these were the first French-style bedchambers in England, but both Henrietta Maria and Oliver Cromwell seem to have had French bedchambers before him. What was new about the Restoration royal bedchamber was not so much its form (although there were innovations here) but how it was used. Simon Thurley looks at the primary evidence to show how the Restoration brought a new focus on royal bedrooms in function, architecture and decoration.

Meredith Chilton, C.M.

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) is now best known as a womanizer and a libertine, but his History of My Life also reveals he is an acute and vital witness of daily life in the 1700s. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Casanova records details of the meals he ate, and even talks about the rituals of dining. This lecture will focus on the intimate dinners for two that Casanova savoured in Venice with his lover “M.M.” It will include a look at the food and wines they relished, the private apartments where these meals were served, and the ceramics and silver on the table… along with a few comments on the aphrodisiacs that enhanced the lovers’ pleasure.

Philippa Vaughan

The European idea of boudoir and its architectural setting, originally associated particularly with the private apartments of the chatelaine in grand houses, carries connotations of personal privacy. By contrast in India privacy is understood more in terms of inner space and the individual is rarely alone physically, even for the most intimate acts such as sex or grief. In Muslim courts the harem was a large community of women of the royal family of all generations, with extensive households of ladies in waiting as well as servants, many of whom shared the same space in one way or another most of the time. This paper will explore the “boudoir” aspects of women’s social life and the environment in which it was enjoyed.

Lisa White, MA, FSA

Creating sufficient light for the night time bedchamber in the ages before electricity was challenging, expensive and often dangerous. This talk will develop knowledge about the materials used, their hierarchy, location and the results they produced. In particular, the talk will focus on the impact of artificial light on the design, decoration and destination of furnishing for the bedchamber, from textiles for the bed to lacquer and japanning. Magnificence will be contrasted with modesty, with a discussion of lighting for significant stage sets such as Lying-In and Lying in State.

Professor Dame Rosalind Savill, DBE, FBA, FSA

The ingenuity of the Vincennes/Sèvres factory to provide a variety of porcelain items for personal use in the private apartments of eighteenth-century France was boundless. This talk will consider the models developed for washing, hygiene and health, for cosmetics and grooming, and for heating and serving the light meals consumed during the ritual of the toilette, or while confined to bed. The factory also created shapes to enhance the ambiance of these small and busy spaces, from perfume burners and pot-pourri vases, to plaques for work tables and writing desks, as well as pieces for the pastimes and social occasions with friends that were part of daily life in these intimate rooms.