Moray, Banff & Badenoch Decorative & Fine Arts Society

"POESIE" was Titian’s own term for the series of seven mythological paintings inspired by Ovid’s celebrated ‘Metamorphoses’ which he painted late in life for King Phillip of Spain: highly relevant in view of our need to save Titian’s ‘Diana and Callisto’ for the nation. We will examine all the paintings in detail, place them within the broader context of Titian’s career and discuss their relationship with other depictions of episodes from Ovid.

Caroline MacDonald-Haig is a Design & Decorative Arts journalist and author. She will lead the day with Georgian glass, from the development of lead crystal to the Regency period. We will then move on to the Victorian era, eg Thomas Webb, some pressed glass manufacturers and ending with Arts & Crafts designs. We will also look at glass brought along by members, ideally pieces which they think could be 18th or 19th century but anything of interest.

David Jones FSA (Scot)

David Jones FSA(Scot) is a lecturer in Furniture History at the University of St. Andrews. He is passionately interested in Scottish Furniture, regularly publishes specialised articles and lectures on the subjects of Regional Furniture and Furniture History and is editor of the academic journal “Regional Furniture.” David Jones is also the Hon. Keeper of Furniture at Dumfries House.

In 2003 David led a very popular Special Interest Day for us at Duff House on the Scottish Vernacular Chair. This time David will include all furniture in his talks, and members are invited to bring any piece they own with them to the Day – or a photograph if the item is too big to carry!

Charles Burnett, Ross Herald of Arms

Charles Burnett is one of Scotland’s leading authorities on Heraldry. For many years he worked for the National Museums of Scotland and has lectured throughout the UK, Sweden and the United States of America. He is also a member of the Moray branch of NADFAS, and lives in Portsoy.

As it was ten years ago that Charles led a wonderful Special Interest Day for us on Heraldry, we think that many more of our members will want to explore this fascinating, sometimes hidden, subject.

Booking forms will be available at the first meeting of the new season on Wednesday 9th September. The cost for the lecture is £30

If you have any queries please contact Sally Bedford on 01309 641044.

Malcolm Kenwood, who is our lecturer for this Day, is a former specialist police detective who investigates art and antique crime, and is one of the foremost experts in this field. The Day will be divided into two parts. Firstly, utilising fascinating actual case studies, he will examine the trail and repatriation of stolen art. After lunch the second part of the Day will focus on protecting cultural property, and how good documentation and identification is so important in the fight against art thieves. Members will be invited to bring small items and digital cameras if they wish to experiment with recording their own property.

Malcolm Kenwood also wrote an article in the Autumn 2007 issue of the NADFAS review about the importance of the work that our society’s Church Recorders undertake

The cost will be £32.50 for the day. To book, please contact the Special Interest Day Secretary after February 11^th 2009.

By Royal Command – the Insatiable Quest for Porcelain in the l8th Century Courts of Europe

As Oriental porcelain started trickling then flowing into Europe it became a symbol of style and good taste. One of Europe’s most excessive rulers, Augustus II of Saxony, nursed two ambitions: to make gold and to make porcelain. Locked in a boarded-up castle and threatened with execution, a young alchemist laboured to discover the secret of the ‘arcanum’. At last the Meissen porcelain factory was founded in 1710 – a perfect way for Augustus the Strong to boast of power and prestige to an astonished Europe.

The discovery of soft paste porcelain at the Royal Château of Vincennes under the aegis of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour, and the development of the Sevres porcelain factory is a fascinating story, a factory known for its rich colour grounds and gilt rococo scrollwork, as the fashion for tea-drinking in courtly circles demanded porcelain of great elegance. We will also touch on the Capodimonte factory started by the King of Naples.

The Delights of l8th Century English Porcelain

The manufacture of porcelain in Britain coincided with the height of the rococo period and the fashion for tea and coffee drinking in social circles. In spite of the exquisite beauty, uniqueness and at times humour of these English pieces, success was often short-lived without the Royal patronage enjoyed by the European factories. However, English porcelain is often more commercially desirable and sought-after than its European counterparts.

The lecture includes the factories at Chelsea, Bow, Worcester, Derby and Longton Hall, and embraces the styles and influences from the Orient, the Continental and from silver, also helpful hints on indentification. (Powerpoint)

In the afternoon we will have an identification session with a pieces they have brought with them, followed by a quiz.

Joanna Weld-Forrester

Joanna worked for many years in the European Ceramic Department at Sotheby’s in London where she became head of British Ceramics. It was there that she met her husband, Anthony, who over a period of 27 years, has run the office in Glasgow for Sotheby’s and now runs Scotland from Edinburgh. She has raised four children and has lectured extensively throughout Scotland and in England for NADFAS, the National Art Collections Fund and many others and has often been joined by Anthony for Ceramic Study Days in Country Houses and Hotels. She started a Young NADFAS Group (Young Arts) in 1998 in the Stirling area from which she has just retired as Chairman; she has recently joined the committee of the Stirling branch of the Art Fund. Joanna much enjoyed lecturing on a cruise in the Mediterranean last summer and will go again in 2008.

This is a repeat of the very popular day held in October 2007 as it was so over-subscribed.