Enfilade

From the course flyer:

BIFMO-FHS Online Course | Patronage & Purpose

British and Irish Country House Interiors, 1600–1914

British and Irish Furniture Makers Online / The Furniture History Society

Five Online Sessions | 3, 10, 17, 24 November and 1 December 2026

17.00–19.30 (GMT) / 12.00–14.30 (EST)

Join us on Zoom every Tuesday throughout November and into early December for this year’s Furniture History Society online course. During these five sessions leading speakers will explore the changing role of furniture in a variety of country house interiors, from grand reception and state rooms to more intimate domestic spaces. Each session will bring together three speakers to examine a different period and explore evolving approaches to interior design and furnishing, whilst also considering how rooms were shaped by, and in turn, reflected the changing patterns of domestic life, taste, and patronage.

Tickets may be bought for individual sessions or the entire course, but you will benefit from a discount if all five sessions are bought together. Every session will be recorded and links to these recordings will be sent to ticketholders, to enjoy unlimited access until mid-January 2027. Please note that these recordings will not be available to buy after the course has ended. Furniture History Society members, including Early Career Group members, will benefit from a discount on all tickets.

Tickets are available at the Eventbrite page. If you are unable to access the website or have any questions, please contact us at bifmo@furniturehistorysociety.org. To find out more about The Furniture History Society (FHS), please visit our website. These courses help to promote and support the British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO); to learn more about this open access database, please click here.

Session One | 3 November
• Megan Wheeler — Hardwick Hall’s Great Chamber and Furnishing the Elizabethan State Rooms
• Kerry Louise Apps — Lacquer and Japanning in the Queen’s Antechamber at Ham House
• Amy Lim — Burghley: The Bedchamber and Closet of the Countess of Essex

Session Two | 10 November
• Emma Baillie — Confined to a Pavilion: Lady Yester’s Bedroom at Yester House
• Matthew Hirst — The Palladian State Dining Room: Woburn and Wentworth Woodhouse
• Pauline Swords — Russborough House, Ireland

Session Three | 17 November
• Kerry Bristol — James ‘Athenian’ Stuart at Spencer House, London, c.1759–65: Influences and Contexts
• Megan Aldrich — Soho House
• Adriano Aymonino — The Library at Syon House

Session Four | 24 November
• Adriana Turpin — Penrhyn Castle: The Library
• Penny Hines — Carlyle’s House: The Creative Home
• Matthew Winterbottom — Burges

Session Five | 1 December
• George Roberts — The Whistler Room at Mottisfont Abbey
• Annette Carruthers — ‘Plain living and high thinking’: Ernest Gimson’s Living Room in Sapperton
• Christopher Maxwell — Narcissa Thorne: A Modern Miniaturist

Banner Images: Detail of the Library at Penrhyn Castle (Public Domain); trompe-l’œil at Mottisfont Abbey by Rex Whistler, ca. 1934 (Public Domain); detail of the Painted Room at Spencer House, ca. 1759-65), with carved and gilded limewood furniture suite attributed to Thomas Vardy after designs by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart (London: Victoria & Albert Museum); detail of the English Drawing Room of the Georgian Period, 1770-1800, ca. 1937, designed by Narcissa Niblack Thorne in the collection of the Art Institute, Chicago, (Public Domain Designation); detail of a design for a sconce by Ernest Gimson, undated, in the collection of The Wilson Museum (©The Cheltenham Trust).