Transferware Worldwide Lecture Series - Aestheticism on the Dinner Table

Aestheticism on the Dinner Table: The ‘Etching Revival’ and Transferware by Jeffrey Ruda

(Members, please check your email on November 3 for the Zoom link to this lecture. Non-members are also welcome to view future Transferware Worldwide lectures: simply provide your email address to receive the Zoom links and news and information about future TCC programming.)

In 1867-68, French artist Félix Bracquemond etched the transfer prints for Europe’s first table service in a new Japonesque style.  The service was a huge critical and commercial success, and was quickly embraced by potters in Staffordshire.  The design breakthrough has always been recognized, but not the choice and effect of etched transfer prints instead of engravings.  The talk will discuss the scope, look, and meaning of this unconventional medium when etching itself was an art-world fashion.
 
Jeffrey Ruda is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of California, Davis, where he headed the Art History faculty for twelve years.  His publications include Fra Filippo Lippi:  Life and Work, London & New York, 1993; and The Art of Drawing:  Old Masters from the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Flint (MI), 1992, as well as journal articles.  He has been a ceramics fan and collector since grad school, and he was president of the San Francisco Ceramic Circle from 2013 to 2019. An active member of the TCC, he is also a contributor to the TCC Database of Patterns and Sources.