San Francisco Ceramic Circle
April 19th, 2001 Meeting
The London Decorated Worcester Porcelain of James
Giles 1763 - 1776
an illustrated slide lecture by
Harry Frost
Raven Mason Curator at Keele University, Staffordshire,
England
The April meeting of the San Francisco Ceramic Circle will
be held on Thursday, 19th April in the Legion Café 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:This illustrated talk will discuss the decoration
of Worcester porcelain by the London decorating studio of Jasmes
Giles between 1763 and 1776. The stylish decoration for which
Giles is famous reflected the prvailing taste of the period in
the English capital city and center of style.
About the lecturer: Harry E. Frost comes from a long line
English potters working in the West Country since the 17th century.
His personal involvement with ceramics started when he was 11
and continued through ceramic studies at the Universities of Wolverhampton
and Stoke and training at Coalport, Spode and Wedgwood eventually
becoming the first ceramic modeler to receive a Masters degree
in the U.K.
He was appointed Design Modeler at the Worcester Royal Porcelain
Company in 1976 specializing in hard paste porcelain and bone
china design development and in 1983 was appointed curator of
the renowned Dyson Perrins Museum at the factory, which has the
largest and most comprehensive collection of Worcester porcelain
in the world. He was instrumental in the re-interpretation of
this collection in the new museum complex and in the acquisition
of the Gerry Coke collection of Giles decorated Worcester porcelain
for the museum.
While still acting as a consultant to the Museum and the company
in its 250th year of operation, he has now embarked on an independent
career consulting with ceramics museums and auction houses. He
was also recently appointed Raven Mason Curator of the Masons
Ironstone China Collection at Keele University. He has been introduced
as the only curator of ceramics with his own work on display in
ceramic museums and has lectured in the U.K. and the U.S.A., Australia,
Japan and Saudi Arabia
Next meeting: Thursday, 17th May 2001. Topic to be announced
later.