HBA Travel Award for Graduate Students
Historians of British Travel Award
Proposals due by 15 September 2013
The award is designated for a graduate student who will be presenting a paper on British art or visual culture at an academic conference in 2014. The award of $750 is intended to offset travel costs. Applicants must be current members of HBA. To apply, send a letter of request, a copy of the letter of acceptance from the organizer of the conference session, an abstract of the paper to be presented, a budget of estimated expenses (noting what items may be covered by other resources), and a CV to Renate Dohmen, Prize Committee Chair, HBA, brd4231@louisiana.edu. The deadline is September 15, 2013.
Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum Acquires Plate Warmer by Rudolf Wittkopf
From the Nationalmuseum’s press release (as noted at the French Silver Blog , 14 August 2013) . . .
Plate Warmer by Rudolf Wittkopf, 1709. Diameter 20 cm, height 12 cm, weight 830 g. (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, inventory number: NMK 102/2013) Photograph: Bodil Karlsson / Nationalmuseum)
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A plate warmer manufactured by Rudolf Wittkopf in Stockholm in 1709, believed to be a unique artifact, has been added to Nationalmuseum’s collection of early 18th-century Swedish silver. The piece, the only known surviving example in Sweden of a silver plate warmer, consists of a stand with three cast-metal feet and a removable burner with oil reservoir. The upper section is perforated to improve the airflow to the flame providing the heat, and at the top are three volute-shaped handles that hold the plate of food to be warmed.
The new, refined dining customs that appeared in Swedish upper-class circles in the early 18th century were modelled on French practices. Nationalmuseum’s extensive collection of hand drawings includes depictions from this period of two French réchaudes, or plate warmers, which were intended to serve as models for the modern silverware to be ordered by the Swedish court and aristocracy. The royal household accounts of Queen Hedvig Eleonora show that, in 1705, the fashion-conscious monarch purchased “a silver dish ring that can also be used as a heating dish” from Petter Henning, a Stockholm silversmith. However, little of the royal silverware from this period has survived, and there are no known examples in Sweden apart from the plate warmer now acquired by Nationalmuseum. This suggests that objects of this kind were a rarity even in their day and were probably manufactured only in very limited quantities.
The new acquisition is an important addition to Nationalmuseum’s collection of late baroque silver, illustrating how closely the Swedish court and aristocracy followed contemporary fashion, especially that of France.
Nationalmuseum’s acquisition of the Rudolf Wittkopf plate warmer has been made possible by a donation from the Barbro Osher Fund. Nationalmuseum has no budget of its own for new acquisitions, but relies on gifting and financial support from private funds and foundations to enhance its collections of fine art and craft.
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