The Gardens Trust’s second series exploring how gardens and flowers have influenced and inspired other arts and crafts turns to ceramics. This lustrous material was invented centuries ago in China and has long been regarded as rare, beautiful and highly sought after, and by the 18th Century the secret of making and firing this material had been discovered in Europe. Porcelain provided an ideal background for painted decoration, and botanical designs and landscapes provided a rich source of inspiration. Three of our talks provide a brief chronology of floral images and themes on porcelain from the symbolism of Chinese peonies to the botanical depictions of ‘Sir Hans Sloane’s plants’. We also look at the eighteenth century fashion for illustrating topographical views on ceramics, including the iconic Green Frog Service and the depiction of the circuit created at Hafod, as well as other picturesque views, all of which have provided objects of great beauty, usefulness and prestige, as well as being an invaluable tool for the modern researcher.
This ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual session, costing £5 via the link HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.
In the later 18th century, nationalist ideologies encouraged the development of accurate representations of specific places with sublime views, both urban and natural. Edmund Burke, in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1756), promoted the emotional impact of the Sublime, evoked by vast, irregular and awe-inspiring landscapes, as in the rugged Derbyshire peaks and expansive moors. This fascination culminated in the cult of the Picturesque and fashionable topographical views and tourist attractions soon appeared on porcelain, often named on the reverse. Beginning with Wedgwood in the 1770s, and continuing in the 1790s at Derby and Worcester, it became the height of fashion for English manufactories to decorate ceramics with British landscapes, often depicting country houses. Many of these images were copied from popular travel books. This talk will concentrate on ceramic examples in the collection of the National Trust from the 1760s through the 1820s.
Patricia Ferguson is a ceramic historian and curatorial consultant. Patricia has worked for the British Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the National Trust for Scotland, and is a Hon. Adviser on Ceramics to the National Trust. Her publications include Pots, Prints and Politics: Ceramics with an Agenda (British Museum Research Publications, 2021), Garnitures: Vase Sets from National Trust Houses (V&A Publishing, 2016), Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces (National Trust Series, 2016) and numerous articles. Patricia is interested in the history of ceramic display and collecting in Britain, which includes the art of floral display.
