Enfilade

Imperial Wine Cups: Gold Cups of Eternal Stability 金甌永固杯, 1740–41 (Qing dynasty, Qianlong period), gold, kingfisher feathers, pearls, sapphires, spinels, tourmalines, carnelian, quartz, chrysoberyl, lapis, turquoise, ivory, mother of pearl and wood; 18 cm high, including stand (London: Wallace Collection, W112 / W113).

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This year’s Haughton International Seminar:

Courtly Magnificence: Gender, Dynasty, and Politics

The British Academy, 11 Carlton House Terrace, London, 24–25 June 2026

Addressing topics ranging from the royal courts of the Middle Ages to those of the 20th century, this seminar will look at how some of the world’s greatest art collections were formed. It will explore how political intrigue and power were involved in their accumulation and how the personalities of these royal collectors—women as much as men—were reflected in their collections.

Two-day seminar: £140
Two-day seminar including a champagne reception and dinner at The Athenaeum on Wednesday, 24th: £230
Student tickets for two-day seminar (on production of ID): £60

p r e s e n t a t i o n s

• Silvia Davoli — Thinking outside the Court: Horace Walpole, Prince of Strawberry Hill
• Lisa Skogh de Zoete — A Family Network of Collectors: Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, Christina of Sweden, and Hedwig Eleonora of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp
• Mia Jackson — Madame de Pompadour: Love, Friendship, and the Arts
• Rose Kerr — Collections of the Forbidden City
• Tim Knox — China Queens: 20th-Century Royal Collectors of Porcelain
• Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth — Our Ceramic Chasse’: The Exceptional Legacy of Lady Charlotte Schreiber
• Lara Virginie Pitteloud — An Imperial ‘Gluttony’: Art Collecting and the Self-Fashioning of Catherine II’s Court
• Ivan Day and Timothy Schroder — Service a la Francaise
• Christopher (Kit) Maxwell — Staging the Past: The Thorne Miniature Rooms and the Theatre of Historic Interiors
• Timothy Wilson — The Earliest Royal Maiolica Commission: The Service for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, and His Wife Beatrice of Aragon
• Catriona Seth— Virtuous Circulations? Maria Theresa and Marie Antoinette’s Family Portraits
• Claudia Wagner — Collecting Intaglios: Princes as Scholars