FPS LIVING ROOM LECTURES

We are delighted to welcome our next lecturer David Wheeler, Senior Decorative Arts Conservator at the Royal Collection Trust. David will discuss the restoration work carried out on the celebrated Sunflower Clock, a unique object testament to the inventiveness of eighteenth-century Parisian artists and marchand-merciers. We hope you can join us!

Living Room Lecture: THE SUNFLOWER CLOCK: A talk covering the research, restoration and re-presentation of this Vincennes treasure from the Royal Collection. – David Wheeler

Time: Sunday, 13 December 2020, 18:00PM London, UK (GMT)

Members will receive an email invitation with instructions on how to join the online lecture. If you want to join, please contact us for more details on FPSenquiries@gmail.com.

THE SUNFLOWER CLOCK

A talk covering the research, restoration and re-presentation of this Vincennes treasure from the Royal Collection.

David Wheeler

This remarkable object (RCIN 30240) was re-presented as part of the ‘Gardens in Art exhibition’ at the Queen’s Gallery in 2015 following a major restoration project in which the floral bouquet was completely transformed and re-ordered. It has now been returned to something like its appearance in the early nineteenth century, shortly after it was acquired by George IV.in 1819.

The bouquet was restored to the appearance recorded in the watercolour painted for the pictorial inventory created for George IV. Following a visit to Dresden to see the Bouquet de la Dauphine, the only other comparative piece, the Sunflower Clock in the Royal Collection was dismantled and rebuilt. New eighteenth-century Vincennes flowers were acquired and incorporated and many old flowers of lesser quality re-purposed and remodelled.

The talk looks at this process of restoration and the associated research as well as at the practicalities and cost implications of a project of this nature.

Image: The Sunflower clock, Vincennes Porcelain Factory, c. 1752. The Royal Collection (RCIN 30240)