The Arts Society Salisbury Lecture
- £8.00
- 12 May 26
- St Francis' Church, Beatrice Road, Salisbury
- 13:50 - 15:00
A lecture by The Arts Society accredited lecturer Ralph Hoyle entitled The Excitement of English Silver (mid-18th Century rococo silver, its context and the adventures of its owners and makers).
Visitors are welcome, whether alone or as the guest of a member. There is a charge of £8 per lecture, which is waived should you decide there and then to become a member. Please see our website through the MORE DETAILS button to the right for information on our other activities and membership. This lecture will look at the Huguenot influence on this most decorative period, where new silversmithing techniques fused with new designs. It will also look at methods of manufacture, interpretation of the engraved heraldry of the items and the social context.
Ralph will make the talk entertaining as well as informative by taking the audience on a journey to uncover the original owners by tracing the heraldry and revealing aspects of their life stories. Fabulously wealthy aristocrats as well as middling sorts, they variously had a stint in the Tower of London, had tragic family circumstances, had their descendants gamble away their estates, found their wife in a bed she should certainly not have been in, or were dragged to their death in an overturned carriage.
Ralph will bring with him the pieces he is going to talk about for the audience to handle and examine, together with a comprehensive presentation of images with close ups of features of interest. Knowing the exploits of the original owners of the pieces adds considerably to their interest and brings another dimension to their handling.
With a long standing interest in English silver, Ralph aims to entertain as well as inform his audience. He was a schoolboy member of the Wine Label Circle, a society devoted to the study of silver decanters labels, and went on to be its President. He is a long standing member of the Silver Society. He has given talks to the Art Fund, Sheffield Assay Office, American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, Historic Houses and small charity raising events.
Image: Ralph with a selection of English silver