Enfilade

From the FHS (membership information is available here) . . .

Furniture History Society, Annual General Meeting
The East India Club, St James’s Square, London, 25 November 2023

The FHS Annual General Meeting for the year ending 30 June 2023 will be held at the East India Club. The meeting will start at 11.00am, with coffee from 10.30am. Talks will follow the business of the day. Admission to the AGM is free for members, but all members wishing to attend should notify the Events Secretary at least seven days in advance. Tickets for a sandwich lunch with a glass of wine (£22 per head) should also be booked with the Events Secretary at least seven days in advance. We plan to record the talks for those who cannot attend in person.

t a l k s

• Louis Platman (Curator at the Museum of the Home) will talk about Real Rooms, a massive redevelopment project that will see the construction on many new period rooms and immersive displays at the Museum. He will also provide updates on the Cotton Collection of English Regional Chairs and the recently acquired Cotton Archive.

• Dr Tessa Kilgariff (English Heritage Curator of Collections and Interiors, South London). Marble Hill is a villa situated on the banks of the river Thames in Twickenham, London. Built in the 1720s, it was home to the courtier Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk. In the spring of 2022, English Heritage re-opened Marble Hill following an extensive National Lottery Heritage funded project. This talk will explore that project, Marble Hill Revived, by detailing the restoration of the house and gardens and sharing discoveries made in the course of research in the villa’s interiors, collections, and occupants. With a particular focus on the conservation of some important pieces of furniture, we will explore the history of Henrietta Howard’s riverside home.

• Stacey Clapperton (Curator of Works of Art for the Palace of Westminster) and Lucy Odlin (Collections Conservation Manager for the Palace of Westminster) on the history of the design and use of the Speaker’s State Coach (ca. 1690s). Full details will be in the November issue of the Newsletter and also on the website later in the year.

• Dr Amy Frost (Senior Curator at Bath Preservation Trust) will reveal the work currently underway at Beckford’s Tower in Bath to conserve the building and refit the museum, including how William Beckford’s collection and furniture will be presented and interpreted when the museum reopens in March 2024.