Patricia Ferguson
Vase, one of a pair, Minton & Co., Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, lead-glazed earthenware, circa 1856-62. H. 24 in. (61 cm). Shugborough, Staffordshire, The National Trust (NT 1270547.1-2). ©National Trust Images/Robert Morris.
Ceramics in the English Country Houses of the National Trust
"Asian Stories"
"European Stories"
February Seminar
The 2025 CCC Seminar will take place on
Monday, February 10, 2025, 1:00 - 4:00 pm ET
via Zoom.
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Prices for the seminar are as follows:
CCC Members: $ 35
​
Non-members:
Seminar PLUS Membership through June '25: $ 75
or
Non-member Seminar Only: $ 45
or
UNDER 40: Seminar + Membership through June '25: $ 45
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Patricia F. Ferguson, an independent scholar based in London, England, has worked as a curator at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. For the past two decades, she has served as Honorary Adviser on Ceramics to The National Trust in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and has recently completed a survey of Asian ceramics in the National Trust for Scotland. Following her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, she studied Chinese ceramics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where she earned a post-graduate degree. Her recent publications include ‘Reflecting Asia: the reception of Chinese reverse glass paintings in Britain, 1738-1770’, in Elisa Ambrosio et al (eds), China and the West: Reconsidering Chinese Reverse Glass Painting (De Gruyter, 2022), as well as Garnitures: Vase Sets from National Trust Houses (VAP, 2016) and Ceramics: 400 years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces (PWP, 2016). She also served as editor of Pots, Prints and Politics: Ceramics with an Agenda, from the 14th to the 20th Century (British Museum Research Publication, 2021).
Ewer, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China, porcelain, circa 1550-70, with silver-gilt mounts, London, England, 1589-90. H. 14 in. (35.5 cm). Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, The National Trust (NT 1127144). ©National Trust Images/Robert Morris.
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Lecture One
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Ceramics in English Country Houses of the National Trust: Asian Stories
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The first lecture will introduce the imported Asian ceramics typically found in British country houses during the period 1600 to 1950. Kraak-style wares, considered the first global wares in Elizabethan and Jacobean times, were made in Jingdezhen, China, and decorated in underglaze blue. These were used as luxury table wares and often adapted with precious metal mounts for new purposes. The arrival of magnificent jars and vases in the 1630s led to the fashion for massed display and assembled garnitures. During the cessation in trade during the transitional period between the Ming and the Qing dynasties, Europeans turned to kilns in Arita, Japan, to supply their tables and decorate their wall brackets. In the eighteenth century, tea and table wares were made in a multitude of shapes and painted in polychrome enamels—famille verte and famille rose—as well as with armorials and with novelty birds and animals, marking the evolving taste of generations of owners. In the early twentieth century, the discovery of ancient wares from the Tang and Song dynasties during the building of rail networks in China introduced a whole new category of collecting. Each remarkable object has a story to tell: of exploration and international commerce, technical innovation and high fashion, extravagant collectors, and family pride. With over 250 houses and more than 80,000 ceramics the choice of stories available through the National Trust is limitless.
Figure of Guanyin, Dehua, Fujian province, China, porcelain, circa 1640-90. H. 17 ¾ in. (45.5 cm). Saltram, Devon, The National Trust (NT 871079). ©National Trust Images/Robert Morris.
‘The Lady of the Order of the Pug’, Meissen, Germany, hard-paste porcelain, circa 1745. H. 11 ¾ in. (29 cm). Fenton House, London, The National Trust (NT 1448072). ©National Trust Images/Robert Morris.
Lecture Two
Ceramics in English Country Houses of the National Trust: European Stories
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The second lecture will focus on non-Asian ceramics found in British country houses managed or owned by the National Trust, beginning in the seventeenth century with Italian maiolica and Dutch delftware, and followed in the eighteenth century by Meissen porcelain, French porcelain and faience, Chelsea, Worcester, and Derby porcelain. The discovery of the ceramics at Pompeii and Herculaneum in the mid-eighteenth century, which were acquired as souvenirs, inspired the potter Wedgwood and his partner Bentley to produce copies in order to furnish libraries and chimney-pieces, which resulted in the mania for vases of all kinds. Then with the dispersal of the French royal collections during the Revolution in 1789, English aristocrats acquired Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain, and, following the Treaty of Amiens, Paris porcelain as well. An interest in historic ceramics during the Victorian age led to the rise of collecting, notably of the illustrious wares of the Minton manufactory of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as many publications on the subject. The speaker will draw on a wealth of documentary evidence – letters, inventories, watercolors, paintings and historic photographs – to explain how these ceramics touched almost every aspect of family and social life in Britain over 400 years.