FHS EC Research Symposium:New Discoveries in Furniture & Historic Interiors

The Furniture History Society invites you to its eighth Early Career Research Symposium, to be held at the University of Buckingham’s London campus, 51 Gower Street, from 9:30am to 5pm on Friday 23 January. Part of the Society’s Early Career Group (ECG) programme, the symposium features current research by emerging scholars in furniture history, the decorative arts, and historic interiors.

The programme reflects the wide range of interests among early-career researchers, with speakers from Britain, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, and the United States. The event is free to attend, but advance registration via Eventbrite is required by midnight (GMT) on Monday 19 January.

Places are limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. The symposium will be recorded and made available for one month to registered participants. Any enquiries about this event or the Early Career programme should be directed to grants@furniturehistorysociety.org.

Here is an overview of the programme for the day:

· Mary Algood (V&A/RCD History of Design Programme, UK) – Makers of Funeral Furniture in 17th century England

· Tristan Fourmy (Institut National du Patrimoine, France) – Hercules in the Decorative Arts in 18th century France

· Laini Farrare (University of Delaware, USA) – Atlantic Mahogany: Enslavement, Labor and the Early American Windsor Chair

· Francesco Montuori (European University Institute, Italy) – Beyond Chinoiserie: The Gabinetto di Porcellana and its Floor

· Anne Weiss (University of Cologne, Germany) – Status and Space: Dynastic References in the Furnishings of Wilhelmine von Bayreuth’s Apartments in the New Palace and Old Palace of the Hermitage in Bayreuth (1735-1758)

· Karolina Laszczukowska (University of Uppsala, Sweden) – The Material Hierarchies in the Furnishings and Interiors of the Private Apartments of Princess Sofia Magdalena and Duchess Hedvig Elisabet Charlotta at Stockholm Palace in 1766 and 1774

· Katherine Hardwick (Chatsworth House, UK) – Garrets Full of the Commodity? Collecting Boulle at Chatsworth)

· Paul Giraud (Institut National du Patrimoine, France) – Collecting Italian 18th century Furniture at the Belle Epoque: The Origins of Interior Design

· Justine Lecuyer (Sorbonne, France) – Crafting Comfort: Upholstery and Textile Aesthetics in 19th century Interiors

· Eleonora Drago (Civic Museums of Treviso, Italy) – Paul Albert Bernard and the decoration of the French Room at the Biennale in 1905: an homage to Venice and France from a decorative skylight

The day is made possible thanks to the generous support of the University of Buckingham, the Della Howard Fund and the Oliver Ford Trust.

IMAGES ON BANNER ABOVE: Detail, Portrait of Hedvig Elisabet Charlotta, Princess of Sweden, by Alexander Roslin (1775) Nationalmuseum, Sweden. Public domain. André-Charles Boulle, coffer-on-stand ã Chatsworth House Trust; detail mirror shard cabinet, apartment of Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth (1709–1758), Old Palace of the Hermitage in Bayreuth, c. 1750, © Bavarian Administration of Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, Photo: Achim Bunz.