Please note that this event is being held at Paxton House in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and there are limited tickets available.

In this, the tercentenary year of the master designer and cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale’s birth, Paxton House will host a symposium titled Harewood and Paxton: Chippendale Commissions Compared on 29^th September 2018.

This will present new research commissioned by both Paxton and Harewood Trusts; specifically comparing and contrasting the two commissions – the approach of the two patrons to their commissions, issues of style, taste, functionality, technical prowess, sources of funding, (the slave trade) and the response by a contemporary artist to an historical commission (at Harewood by Geraldine Pilgrim).

Symposium Programme

10am, leaving every 5–8 minutes
Highlight Tours of Paxton
Highlight tour of Paxton for delegates – maximum of 20 per tour must be pre-booked

Morning Session

11.15am
Welcome
by The Paxton Trust Chairman of Trustees: Professor Ian Marrian, with coffee, who will introduce the first two speakers

11.20am
New Research in Context I: Introduction to the Chippendale Commission at Paxton
Dr. Fiona Salvesen Murrell, Curator, The Paxton Trust

11.50am
New Research in Context II: Introduction to the Chippendale Commission at Harewood
Professor Ann Sumner, Historic Collections Adviser, Harewood House Trust

12.20pm
Questions for speakers

12.30pm
Lunch
Break and opportunity to view highlighted furniture with Tim Phelps, Accredited Furniture Conservator

Afternoon Session

Chaired by Professor Ann Sumner

1.30pm
The Paxton Style
David Jones, Research Fellow, The Paxton House Trust

2.10pm
Chippendale and the Antique: Chippendale’s Personal Interpretation and Development of a Neo-classical style in Two Contrasting Case Studies
James Lomax, Hon. Curator of the Chippendale Society

2.50pm
Investigating the Technical Challenges for Chippendale and his Workshop at Harewood and Paxton
Dr Adam Bowett, Chairman of the Chippendale Society

3.30pm
Chippendale Reinterpreted at Harewood: The Diana and Minerva Commode
Rebecca Burton, Collections Assistant Harewood House Trust (TBC)

3.40pm
Questions for speakers

3.50pm
Panel Discussion: Responding to Chippendale’s Commissions 300 Years On
Chaired by Dr Adam Bowett, including contemporary artist Geraldine Pilgrim, Christine Palmer (Carvers & Gilders TBC) involved in the gilding analysis, Tim Phelps (T L Phelps Fine Furniture Conservation, Knaresborough), Professor Abigail Harrison Moore (University of Leeds) Hannah Obee (Head of Collections and Exhibitions Harewood House Trust). With tea/coffee.

4.15–5.15pm
Highlighted Tour of Paxton’s Chippendale Furniture
With Tim Phelps / Dr Murrell / David Jones