San Francisco Ceramic Circle
March 23rd, 2000 Meeting
18th Century Vincennes & Sèvres Porcelain
in the Dodge Collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Tracey Albainy
Associate Curator, European Sculpture & Decorative
Art
Detroit Institute of Arts
The March meeting of the San Francisco Ceramic Circle will
be held on Thursday, 23rd March in the Florence Gould Theater
at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, San Francisco.
Entrance is from the West terrace from 7.30pm. The lecture will
start at 8.00pm.
About the Lecture:
In the early 1930's, Anna Thompson Dodge, the heiress to one
of America's greatest automotive fortunes, began construction
of a Louis XVI style mansion in Grosse Pointe Farms known as Rose
Terrace. The art dealer Joseph Duveen collaborated with Mrs. Dodge
on the furnishing of her palatial residence, assembling one of
the most distinguished collections of 18th century decorative
arts in the United States. In the music room were displayed forty-six
pieces of Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain, ranging in date
from c. 1754 to 1781. Highlights of this collection include ornamental
vases formerly in the collection of Louis XV and Maria Feodorovna,
a Sèvres-mounted jewel coffer from the Pavlovsk Palace
near St. Petersburg, and an assembled group of dessert wares decorated
with blue céleste grounds and reserve scenes of
naturalistic birds. The porcelain, together with the entire contents
of the music room was bequeathed to the Detroit Institute of Arts
in 1970. The talk will discuss the porcelains and the collector
and dealer who assembled this remarkable collection.
About our speaker:
Tracey Albainy joined the staff of the European Sculpture
& Decorative Arts Department at the Detroit Institute of Arts
in 1993 and was promoted to Associate Curator in 1997. Prior to
joining the Detroit Institute of Arts Ms. Albainy held positions
at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, at Marble House in
Newport, R.I., as a curatorial intern at the J. Paul Getty Museum,
at the Parsons School of Design and at the Frick Art Reference
Library. She holds a BA in Art History from Smith College and
Masters degrees from the Parsons/Cooper -Hewitt program and from
New York University. She has numerous articles, awards and exhibitions
to her credit including Joseph-Theodor Deck: the Art of Ceramics
in Nineteenth-Century France at the Detroit Institute last year.
Mini exhibit: The porcelains of Vincennes and Sèvres
and their European contemporaries 1750 - 1790. Set up is from
7.30 pm.
Next meeting: Thursday 13th April 2000. "English Delftware"
by Jonathan Horne, London specialist dealer and renowned authority
on early English pottery.
Future S.F.C.C. programs:
Thursday, 13th April 2000 "English Delftware" by
Jonathan Horne
Thursday, 18th May 2000. "Harlequin Unmasked: the Commedia
dell'Arte and Porcelain in 18th Century Europe" by Meredith
Chilton, Chief Curator, George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art,
Toronto, Canada