AGM, Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue Memorial Lecture and Dinner 2025

Please SAVE THE DATE for the 2025 French Porcelain Society Annual General Meeting (AGM), Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue Memorial Lecture and Dinner on Saturday, 28th June 2025.

At the Treasure House Fair, Royal Hospital Chelsea, South Grounds, London, SW3 4SR

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This year our Annual Lecture will be delivered by Dr Marie-Laure Buku Pongo, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts at The Frick Collection, who will discuss Henry Clay Frick’s dazzling collection of ceramics and its most recent display at the museum.

Henry Clay Frick’s interest in decorative arts emerged at the very end of his life, as he began to occupy the mansion. In 1913–1914, Frick travelled to London and Paris, where he acquired furniture that had once belonged to the Dukes of Devonshire and Sir Richard Wallace, and in 1915–16, he purchased Limoges enamels and Renaissance bronzes from the J.P. Morgan’s estate. In 1915, through the dealer Joseph Duveen (1869–1939), he acquired a table covered with Sèvres porcelain plaques by the cabinetmaker Martin Carlin (c. 1730–1785). A year later, Frick purchased his first pieces of Sèvres porcelain, including a pot-pourri à vaisseau and a pair of vases à oreilles.

More than a century later, after his death in 1919, the collection of ceramics has expanded thanks to several acquisitions and the generosity of long-time friends and supporters of the museum. These great works have returned to their rightful place on the first and second floors of the mansion, but not without a few changes. In this lecture, Dr Marie-Laure Buku Pongo, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts at The Frick Collection, will discuss the reinstallation and display of ceramics after a four-year renovation of the museum.

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The programme for the evening is as follows:

18:00 – 18:45  – Annual General Meeting (in person and online via Zoom for members only)

18:45 – 19:45 – Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue Memorial Lecture (in person and online via Zoom open to everyone)

19:45 – 20:15  – Drinks Reception sponsored by the FPS Committee in honour of Dame Rosalind Savill

20:15 – onwards  – Dinner*

Attendance to the AGM, lecture and drinks reception is free, for members only.

Attendance to the dinner* is £120. There are a limited number of dinner seats at £60 for Emerging Scholars 35 y/o and under.

Book your  tickets here.

* Three-course dinner menu available here. Please email NewsletterFPS@gmail.com if you have any allergies of dietary requirements.

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Access to the Treasure House Fair

If you need an entry ticket to the Treasure House Fair on Saturday 29th June, RSVP here.

These tickets are for members only and can be used all day.

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For more information, please email newsletterfps@gmail.com.

Image: Vase pot-pourri à vaisseau or en navire and pair of vases à oreilles, soft-paste porcelain, Sèvres factory, 1760. The Frick Collection, Henry Clay Frick Bequest (1916.9.07–09).