A Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and Philadelphia Museum of Art Conference
April 26–28, 2022
“We have to think about the next generation” said Brock Jobe, professor of American decorative arts in UD’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture “and there are some incredibly brilliant young people here among us old farts and we want to pass on that knowledge to young people, and this is an incredible opportunity for many of them to learn from us.”
"there are some incredibly brilliant young people here among us old farts and we want to pass on that knowledge"
Speaking on the unusually high number of scholarships they were able to offer he said “Initially we had thought that the number of scholarships awarded would be much smaller, but the sheer quality of the applications we received prompted us to do a considerable amount of additional fund-raising.” and, upon meeting my fellow scholarship recipients I can certainly see why Brock felt so passionately the need to source what ended up being more than double the original funding. The caliber of recipients was indeed exceptional; I experienced imposter syndrome on a level I didn’t know existed, however, far from spiraling into self-doubt, my time at Winterthur left me feeling positively inspired by my fellow scholars and with a renewed sense of motivation.
I found it thoroughly refreshing to meet so many early career professionals and scholars from around the world, all with such widely varying backgrounds and interests; from Jeremy Tritchler an apprentice cabinet maker at Colonial Williamsburg, to Kirsten Friese - a student pursuing a masters degree in the conservation and restoration of wooden objects at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Germany and too many others to mention here. I strongly encourage you to seek out the full list of scholarship recipients and keep a close eye on their individual careers, as I have no doubt many of them will be future speakers at conferences similar to the one we just attended. I cannot thank them all enough for passing on to me their infectious desire to learn and I look forward to what they will undoubtedly bring to their individual fields in the near future.
Sandwiched between two full days of talks, came a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for more presentations in the morning followed by a self-guided tour of the museum in the afternoon, with full access to the European and American furniture galleries; all while the museum was closed to the public. In a space so often filled with hordes of tourists and large groups of children on school trips, finding myself alone in the great stair hall was an odd experience to say the least; I was glad to see Yannick Chastang appear at the top of the stairs on his way back from viewing one of the European galleries.
Now on the third floor, in one of the European Art galleries (No.350) I found myself drawn to a c1600 ebony (possibly Vietnamese, or ‘Mun’ ebony) writing cabinet with engraved ivory inlay from the Naples based workshop of Iacobus Fiamengo, Flemish. As I raised my camera to take the picture below, a lady stopped to put her coat on and a member of the cleaning team walked past; this was the busiest I saw the Eurpean galleries all day.
The Winterthur team did an amazing job of curating an incredible roster of speakers all of whom are at the top of their respective fields, from conservators to historians and curators to artists; video assisted demonstrations from the likes of Yannick Chastang and Steve Latta were always destined to be crowd favourites and indeed, the only thing to outshine Silas Kopf’s marquetry demonstration was the marvelously iridescent technicolor blazer he wore during the talk itself.
Some of my other favourite talks came from Alexandra Cade, Jurgen Huber and John Cross. Alexandra, during her talk ‘Inlaid Lutes and Sand-Shaded Flutes: Marquetry Harpsichords from the Workshop of Jacob Kirkman’, spoke of the unusual duality whereby the instruments provide a canvas for exquisite decoration while also producing sound, becoming a persistent collaboration between the musician and the craftsperson.
Concentrating on two harpsichords in particular, both held at the Sigal Music Museum and dating from 1758 and 1761 respectively, she also spoke of the intimate musical understanding of some of the marquetuers, showing us examples of marquetry sheet music included in some of the marquetry trophies on the two harpsichords. Similarly, Alexandra tells us “one of the most finely executed works of marquetry sheet music can be found on a circa 1760 - 1770 commode at the Met attributed to John Mayhew” where the music is so accurately written it can be read directly off the commode itself.
Jurgen Huber’s talk ‘Observations on the Furniture Attributed to Jean-Henri Riesener.’ shone a bright light on several pieces held at the Wallace Collection, the Hillwood Museum and the Royal Collection Trust.
Of particular interest to me, having recently viewed it, was a c1770 roll top desk (F102) by Jean-Henri Riesener (model designed by Jean-François Oeben) held at the Wallace Collection where colour had been applied to sections of marquetry to imitate the colour of other marquetry at that time. “It wasn’t me..! It wasn’t Yannick either!” he jokingly made clear, ensuring us this had occurred long before the piece entered the collection. I’m very excited to go back to the Wallace Collection to view the pieces featured in Jurgen’s talk more closely and with renewed enthusiasm.
“Sit back, we’re off to the Caribbean''
When John Cross opened his talk ‘Turnbull’s Diversity: Marquetry in a Post-Slavery Workshop.’ with the words “Sit back, we’re off to the Caribbean'' we all knew we were in for a treat!
True to his word, John did indeed take us all the way to Kingston, Jamaica where we learned about Turnbull’s workshop and how, at the time of emancipation in Jamaica, he took on sixty formerly enslaved workers as apprentices and journeymen. John’s talk focused on a centre table, undoubtedly Turnbull’s masterpiece, with a view to decoding some of the iconography it features.
The top boasts no less than thirty-six circular marquetry medallions, falling into five categories; intarsia geometrica, flags, symbolic motifs, pictoral images and armorials. Seen also are a marquetry envelope and letter which, John explains, hold a clue as to the date the table was made. The letter, addressed to the Queen and featuring a penny-black stamp, tells us the table must be post 1840; the date at which the penny-black first entered circulation. A Trade label adhered to the base in tandem with information about Turnbulls family history, in particular his daughters marriage, helps to further narrow down the date of construction.
The team at Winterthur managed to execute, with seemingly effortless precision, a conference unlike any before it; bringing together the world's leading voices to discuss both American and European traditions in marquetry and inlay in a way that brought depth and personality to wide ranging topics.
Needless to say, I found it incredibly hard to narrow down my favourite talks as there were so many fascinating subjects discussed by such a talented group of speakers; the conference is now available to watch online and I urge you to watch it in its entirety. I left Delaware exhausted but with rejuvenated enthusiasm and in eager anticipation of the next conference.
I’d like to thank the team at Winterthur for all their hard work in organising the conference, all the speakers for their time in putting together and delivering their talks and, of course, the incredibly generous donors who made the whole thing possible. Thank you also to the Furniture History Society (www.furniturehistorysociety.org) who sponsored me; to Richard Lloyd & Isabelle Vaudrey of Hatfields Restoration (www.hatfieldsrestoration.com) and to Martin Levy (www.blairman.co.uk) for acting as references in support of my application, and to everyone who attended the conference.
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