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Previous Lectures
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Each season, eight illustrated lectures in English are delivered by
leading European speakers, all of them experts in their subjects.
Everyone is welcome to attend the lectures, whether a member of
ADFAS or not.
Non-members admission per lecture:
Visitor € 12, Students € 5. Admission for members is free.
Venue
Lecures will take place at The Church Hall, St.Boniface Anglican Church,
Grétrystraat.
19:00 for 20:00
Time
We meet at 7:00 to start the lecture at 8:00. (Except May.) Come early and
join us for a drink.
See below for this season's lectures or click on the left to view
previous seasons' lectures.
Season 2009 - 2010
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Monday, October 5th, 2009
Collecting the 20th Century
Paul Atterbury
Paul Atterbury has been a member of BBC TV's Antiques Roadshow team of experts for the last nineteen years, working usually in the miscellaneous section which gives him ample opportunity to explore the antiques and collectables of the 19th and 20th centuries. Other television appearances include The Great Antiques Hunt, and The Antiques Show, as well as participating in Hidden Treasures on BBC Radio Four.
During his life he has been a graphic designer, guide book and travel writer, magazine editor, lecturer, broadcaster, exhibition curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and publisher. He has also found the time to write over thirty books, on ceramics, silver and jewellery, Art Deco design, travel, local history, canals and railways.
Over the last thirty years, Paul has given over 2000 lectures on
many aspects of the art, architecture and design history of the 19th
and 20th centuries. He has lectured to universities and colleges,
antiques societies and collectors’ clubs, NADFAS groups ,Christie’s
Education and for the Victoria and Albert Museum in Britain, United
States, Europe, Canada and Australia.
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 Collecting the 20th century is both a cultural phenomenon and a popular pastime. The styles that launched the century, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, are well established, but the second half of the century is less familiar in collecting terms. Starting in the 1940s, this talk looks at the various styles that dominated European taste and fashion until the 1990s, in order to identify what is collected now and what may be collected in the future. Emphasis is on design, the decorative arts, industrial production and the domestic interior.
 Above: An example of 1950s Poole
pottery
Right: Paul Atterbury
Photo courtesy of www.haveyou
haditlongmadam
.com.
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Royal Scandals Through the Ages
Dr. Kate Williams
Dr Kate Williams is an author and historian, specialising in the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries. She speaks regularly on Radio 4 and has consulted and appeared on historical programmes for BBC and Channel 4. She presented 'Camilla's Family Secrets' for the Reveal ed Series on Channel 5 and the History Channel in July 2008 and a one hour Timewatch special on 'Young Victoria' on BBC 2 in October 2008.
Kate's biography of Emma Hamilton, England's Mistress: the Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton was 'Book of the Week' on Radio 4, shortlisted for the Marsh/ English Speaking Union Prize for best biography published in 2005-6, chosen by the Times as a Book of the Year and the Independent as best biography read of the summer 2007.
Kate studied her BA at Oxford, her MA at London and her DPhil at Oxford in 18th century cultures and narratives of seduction.
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 Royalty and scandal have been in a riotous and uneasy marriage throughout history. The lecture explores the stories of some of the most notable royal scandals throughout the ages, lifting the lid on tales of cash for honours, spurned mistresses, ambitious courtesans, mistreated wives and truly eye-popping levels of spending, and telling the story of Princess Charlotte, wife of Prince Leopold (later first King of the Belgians), daughter of George IV and the Queen who never was.
Above: Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold at their wedding, May 1816
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Monday, December 7th,
2009
The Ego Adorned:
A Fascinating Story
Jennie Baeten
Mrs. Baeten is the Special Events and PR Manager of the Antwerp
World Diamond Center. AWDC is recognized internationally as the
host, spokesperson and intermediary for the Belgian diamond
community.
In this capacity, it liaises on behalf of the Belgian diamond
sector with governments and actively promotes support for the
diamond sector at home and abroad and strives to further develop
Antwerp as the world diamond centre.
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 Diamond jewellery has been and still is influenced by deeply rooted religious convictions, economical changes, technical evolutions and changes in the way of life, while less affected by short-term whims of fashion. Although a diamond jewel is a "joy of beauty" of its own, it is yet more fascinating to regard it as a product of its era with all the information it can offer
Right: Audrey Hepburn in
'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - 1961
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Monday, January 11th,
2010
The Art of the Panorama and Cyclorama:
Nineteenth Century ‘Circlevision’
Prof. Ian Beckett
 Professor Beckett who studied at the Universities of Lancaster
and London and became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society has
vast lecturing experience including the Universities of the US
Marine Corps, Salford and Luton, RMA Sandhurst, various historical
societies and cruise ships. He is currently Professor of History
at the University of Northampton.
He is known internationally for his work on the Great War, the
British army, and modern counter-insurgency. His many publications
include Territorials: A Century of Service, The Great
War, 1914-1918, The Victorians at War, The First World War:
The Essential Guide to Sources in the UK National Archives ,
Modern Insurgencies and Counter-insurgencies, and The
Amateur Military Tradition, 1558-1945.
Above: Professor Ian Beckett.
Right: 2 sections from the panorama at
Waterloo of the battle
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The 360-degree panorama painting was an immensely popular art form in the 19th century in Britain, Europe, and the USA. Over 300 were produced in the last quarter of the century alone; just 16 remain displayed in rotundas around the world although others survive in store. The talk looks at the origin of the panorama; their popularity in the first half of the 19th century; the production and marketing of panoramas and the reception by the audience; the revival and decline of panoramas in the last quarter of the 19th century; and, to finish, some modern panoramas.
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Monday, February 1st,
2010
Houses and Gardens of Normandy
Helen McCabe
Helen McCabe read French at university and studied history of
art and architecture at the École du
Louvre in Paris. She has always particularly loved those parts of
France with close historic links with England, - namely Normandy
and the Bordeaux region (Aquitaine).
She grew up in Cornwall and has now returned to live in her
childhood home. She was commissioned to write a book on the house
and Gardens of Cornwall.
Right: The Château de Miromesnil
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The medieval past of England and Normandy is inextricably linked; the Normandy immortalised by painters and writers alike – the rich greens of field and forest, the whites of apple blossom and chalk cliffs, the blues of the sea and of fields of flax – also contains medieval castles, 16th and 17th century chateaux, 19th century villas and an Arts and Crafts house built by Lutyens with a garden
designed by Gertrude Jekyll.
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Monday, March 1st, 2010
The Splendours of North Africa, - Roman and Islamic Art of
Libya, Tunisia and Morocco
Christopher Bradley
Mr. Bradley is an expert in the history and culture of the
Middle East and North Africa. As a professional tour guide and
lecturer he has led groups throughout Africa, the Middle East and
Asia. He has written extensively on Arabia and is the author of
The Discovery Guide to Yemen, Insight Guide to the Silk Road and
the Berlitz Guide to Libya.
As a photographer he has pictures represented by four
photographic libraries. He has a broad range of lecturing
experience, including to the Royal Geographical Society and the
Royal Institute of British Architects.
As a film producer and cameraman he has made documentaries for
the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.
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Ancient Roman wealth is widely evident in North Africa's magnificent forgotten cities and villas with fabulous mosaics, while the ports handling the attendant Trans-Saharan trade, Leptis Magna, Cyrene, Oea, Sabratha and Carthage, became so powerful that a Libyan, Septimius Severus, even became Emperor in 193 AD. Resting alongside these are the unique structures of Islamic North
Africa.
Above: The stage at the theatre in Sabratha
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Monday, April 12th, 2010
The History of the Long Case Clock
Dr. Colin Lattimore, OBE
Dr. Lattimore, a medical practitioner trained at University
College Hospital, London has had a career in public health
medicine but for many years he has also had a wide interest in the
English decorative and applied fine arts. He has lectured
extensively for extra mural boards of various universities and
written several books on a variety of subjects including silver,
porcelain, heraldry and watercolours.
However his special interest is in the field of clocks and
watches. He is a liveryman and past master of the Worshipful
Company of Clockmakers and is a past president of the British
Horological Institute and chairman of the Friends of the
Clockmakers’ Museum in the City of London. He is an honorary
keeper of locks and watches at the Fitzwilliam Museum in
Cambridge.
He was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire for services to English decorative and applied fine
arts and to the community in Cambridge.
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 A review of early timekeepers from sundials onwards is followed by the introduction of mechanical timekeeping using a weight driven mechanism, and then from turret clocks and lantern clocks to the long case clock which was in fashion for about 180 years from 1660 to 1840, coming back into fashion as an antique in the 20th century. The story involves the artistic, mechanical, social and commercial aspects. It relates the development to the business and social needs of the period.
Left: Silas Hoadley tall clock, ca 1813-1820. Walnut
case.
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Monday, May 10th, 2010
Ocean Liner Art: Ships that Shaped Our Lives 1800-1950
James Taylor
Mr. Taylor is the former curator of paintings, drawings and
prints and co-ordinator of various exhibitions and galleries at the
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and is also lecturer and ships
historian on board cruise ships.
His publications include Marine Painting and Yachts on
Canvas as well as the catalogue for the exhibition Rule
Britannia! Art, Power and Royalty to mark the 400th anniversary
of Jamestown.
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The vision and engineering genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel underpins this global story of hopes and dreams, disasters and triumphs. This talk features a wide range of ships, including Great Britain and Great Western, Lusitania and Mauretania, Olympic and Titanic, as well as the shipping lines and personalities behind them brought to life through historic and contemporary artworks. This is a lively talk with a diverse mix of images including insights into shipboard design and striking Art Deco shipping posters.
Above: RMS Titanic, an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
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