May 27, 2021 - May 27, 2021
Join curator and world textile expert Mary Schoeser for this online lecture exploring English Chintz.
Chintzes, those multi-coloured floral printed cottons that were already widely known and loved by 1800 and had originally owed their appearance to India. Yet during the first 75 years of the nineteenth century, British designers developed a style that was unique. It owed something to India and to the French but was even more influenced by the creation of English gardens, the most famous of which is Kew Gardens, officially founded as a national botanical garden in 1840.This online lecture demonstrates how designs changed over the period, as well as highlighting the importance of women as consumers, whose tastes were informed by new trends in gardening and collections of botanical prints. Mary will also illustrate the chintzes that were criticised as bad taste and reveals whether that made them more of less popular.
Mary Schoeser is an internationally respected textile and wallpaper historian who has published and curated widely. She has collaborated with many museums over her 40-year career, including the Fashion Textile Museum, London; the V&A – where she is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow – and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As an historic textile advisor, she has worked with English Heritage, the National Trust and private house owners, and as a consultant archivist, with organisations such as Laura Ashley, Sanderson and the John Lewis Partnership. Most recently Mary has curated Victorian Chintz and its Legacy as part of the museums upcoming exhibition Chintz: Cotton In Bloom.
Tickets: £5
