Raiding the Past: Furniture for the Anglo-Gallic Interior, 1800-1865

Dr Diana Davis specializes in the interface between collectors, dealers and the art market in the nineteenth century. She co-edits the French Porcelain Society Journal and has lectured for Christie’s Education, the Furniture History Society, the French Porcelain Society, the Wallace Collection, the National Trust, at the Jewish Country House Conference, and at Masterpiece.

In December 1836, the dealer George Gunn advertised his ‘BUHL and MARQUETERIE FURNITURE, clocks, bronzes, carved salons, consoles, ancient chimnies, tapestry, and every description of property connected with the time and taste of Louis XIV’. It reflected a radical change in collecting practice, an opulent Anglo-Gallic decorative style that combined the contrasting taste of two rival nations.  This talk investigates the role of dealer cabinetmakers such as Edward Holmes Baldock and Robert Hume, who transformed ancien régime furniture into cherished heirlooms for a new century and then created their own new and modified furniture inspired by it. By examining this furniture from the patron’s perspective and in the context of the interiors for which it was made, the dealer emerges centre stage as trader, maker and tastemaker.

This lecture is to accompany Diana’s exciting new major publication, The Tastemakers: British Dealers and the Anglo Gallic Interior, 1785-1865; and we will be disclosing some discount codes on the evening, for 20% off the RRP.

The Green Drawing Room of the Earl of Essex at Cassiobury, by William Henry Hunt, 1823 (Thaw Collection, Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, acc. no. 2007-27-4)