Our second meeting of the fall season will be held on WEDNESDAY, October 30, 1996 at the Lighthouse, 111 East 59th Street, Between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue, New York, NY at 8:00PM.
Our speaker of the evening will be Mr. Harry E. Frost, M. A. His lecture will discuss "James Giles Worcester Porcelain, 1763-1776"
The Museum of Worcester Porcelain (Dyson Perrins) has recently received the bequest of the coke Collection, porcelain decorated by the London atelier of James Giles.
The late Gerald Coke wrote the standard work on this subject and his was the finest and largest collection of the subject in private hands.
This talk will illustrate a great number of previously unseen pieces and seek to differentiate between Giles and contemporary Worcester factory decoration.
As curator of The Museum of Worcester Porcelain, formerly known as the Dyson Perrins Museum, Harry Frost has the stewardship of the largest and most comprehensive collection of Royal Worcester in the world. Since joining the museum in 1983, he has achieved a reputation as one of the world's leading authorities on Worcester and has a technical knowledge of ceramics which is unique in museum service.
Much in demand as a speaker, Mr. Frost has toured the world speaking to many of the major ceramic societies, Royal Households, and the BBC Antiques Road Show. In 1986 he was appointed to the committee of the National Art Collections Fund, Worcestershire Branch, and served as its chairman.
Under his leadership, the Museum is presently undergoing major change with the first phase of an expansion program now completed and a second phase scheduled to begin next fall. This will enable the museum to showcase several major bequests of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century porcelains.
Mr. Frost has always believed that "Royal Worcester is crown jewel in the crown of the British ceramic industry. It certainly has the longest and most distinguished history of any porcelain producer in the U. K." He is totally committed to the interpretation of its achievements and greater appreciation of its heritage. In this respect he acts as an ambassador for the museum and the company.
Harry Frost was born in Somerset where his family have been potters since 1680. He started collecting old porcelain very early and was totally fascinated with the field by age eleven. He holds a degree in design at Wolverhampton College of Art and Master of Arts on Ceramics at Stoke College of Art, becoming the first modeler in the United Kingdom to gain a master's degree. After training in the design departments at Coalport and Josiah Wedgwood, Mr. Frost joined Royal Worcester in 1976 as resident Designer/Modeler.