Enfilade

From the Bath Preservation Trust:

Symposium | Small Worlds: Dolls’ Houses from the 18th and 19th Centuries
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Bath, 6 November 2015

Small Worlds, the current exhibition at No.1 Royal Crescent, aims to go beyond showing dolls’ houses simply as exquisite collector’s items by exploring wider themes, such as the part they played in girls’ education and women’s history, links with philanthropy (because toys for wealthy children were often furnished with the labours of the poorest), and their importance as material culture. We are holding a special day symposium to explore further some of these themes.

To be chaired by Adrian Tinniswood and featuring Liza Antrim in conversation with Antique Roadshow’s Fergus Gambon, the event will bring together a panel of speakers who are experts in their fields. Kathryn Jones, Curator of Decorative Arts, the Royal Collection, will talk about Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House while curators from the V&A and the National Trust showcase other national treasures and their links with the English Country House. The idea of dolls houses as ‘emotional objects’ and their connection with philanthropy and the history of childhood is explored by Professor Joanne Bailey of Oxford Brooks and Dr. Mary Claire Martin of Greenwich University, while symbolic inspiration for film and literature, in particular the ghost story and all things gothic, is covered by Lucy Arnold of Leeds University in a splendidly named paper, ‘Shrinking in Terror’!

Tickets: £55, students £35. A limited number of bursary places are available to full or part time students. Click here for a link to our website and a copy of our bursary application form. Lunch and an exhibition drinks reception at No. 1 Royal Crescent is included within the ticket price. If you have any questions about
the symposium please email our Events Officer, Kate Rogers,
krogers@bptrust.org.uk.

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P R O G R A M M E

9.45  Registration

10.00  Welcome from Adrian Tinniswood

10.10  Liza Antrim and Fergus Gambon in conversation

10.40  The Voice of the House: Material Culture and Emotion, Joanne Bailey (Oxford Brooks University)

11.10  Questions

11.30  Coffee

11.45  The Utensil for Marriage? The Dutch Kitchen Cabinet and the Place of Women in the 17th Century, Rachel Barber

12.15  Furnishing the 18th-Century Baby House: A Working Country House in Miniature, Patricia Ferguson (National Trust external advisor on ceramics)

12.45  Questions

1.00  Lunch

2.00  Childhood and Philanthropy in Victorian England, Mary Clare Martin (University of Greenwich)

2.30  Upstairs, Downstairs: Queen Mary’s Dolls House as a Record of Edwardian England, Kathryn Jones (Curator of Decorative Arts, The Royal Collection)

3.00  Questions

3.15  Tea

3.45  Shrinking in Terror: Gothic and the Dolls House, Lucy Arnold (doctoral student at University of Leeds and administrator of Home, Crisis and the Imagination Network)

4.15  Small Stories: A Collection of Characters at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Alice Sage (Curator, V&A Museum of Childhood)

5.00  Questions

5.20  Summing Up by Adrian Tinniswood

6.00  Drinks reception and opportunity to view the exhibition at No.1 Royal Crescent