Ivan Day - Some Forthcoming Lectures

I thought that some of you who follow this blog might be interested in some lectures I am giving over the next few months. I am in Hartford, CT later this month presenting a lecture at the Wadsworth Atheneum and a workshop at the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale. These are private internal events and are also fully subscribed. However, on the 14th April, I am giving a public lecture at Christies New York and reading a paper on the 30th at the Bard Graduate Center as part of the symposium Kitchen and Table in Early Modern Period Europe and Colonial America. On 7th June I am speaking at the Garden Museum in London on food at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. There are further details of all these events below.
Christies NYC
Dining Culture in Enlightenment Europe
A lecture by Ivan Day

From the townhouses of Edinburgh to the palaces of St Petersburg, from the chocolate houses of Madrid to the grand salons of Stockholm, the cuisine and dining protocol of the French ancien regime spread rapidly during the course of the eighteenth century to all of the great European centers, frequently obliterating the native high status food traditions of those who adopted it. In this illustrated lecture,British food historian Ivan Day will examine the dramatic cultural impact that the spread of French court food had on the non-French speaking aristocratic world. He will not only discuss the remarkable food itself, but its mode of service and the glittering material culture which it spawned.
Please join us for a fascinating look at the cuisine and dining protocol of the French ancient regime which spread throughout Europe during the 18th century. In this illustrated lecture, British food historian Ivan Day will examine French court food’s dramatic cultural impact, its mode of service and the glittering material culture it inspired.
Sunday, April 14 2013
3:00 pm
Christies 20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York City
Cost to attend is $25.00 and must be paid in advance – gratis to students upon presentation of school ID.
To RSVP and arrange payment, please contact Johanna Josefsson at
jjosefsson@christies.com or on +1 212 636 2215
The Bard Graduate Center NYC
Symposium: Kitchen and Table in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America

Displaying the Kitchen and Table
A lecture by Ivan Day
The vast material culture spawned by the consumption of food has frequently been studied by art historians whose chief criteria have been aesthetic developments, makers, materials and other formal issues. Considerations of utility - how objects were actually used and particularly how they were used together - have often been glossed over and rarely fully discussed. In terms of museum presentation, this means that most of the silver, glass, ceramics and other tableware associated with dining are arranged in display cabinets as precious objects worthy of our admiration, but removed from their original human context, a table surrounded by diners. On the other hand, the more humble utilitarian objects associated with the production of food have often been perceived as historical ‘bygones’ or curios, frequently grouped together as ‘kitchenalia’ and not usually considered worthy of study by the serious scholar. Using examples of period dining room re-creations and open kitchen displays he has curated over the past two decades, the speaker will discuss issues of interpretation, authenticity and ways forward for contextual displays of this nature.
Registration Details and Symposium Programme
Monday April 29 2012 9.30am to 6.00pm
The Bard Graduate Center
18 West 86th Street
New York,  New York 10024
Telephone 212 501 3000
E-mail generalinfo@bgc.bard.edu
The Garden Museum London Symposium: Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

A Quart of Arrack and a Heart Cake
Food and Drink in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens 1661-1859
A lecture by Ivan Day
Monday 17th June 2012
For more information on this event, check the Symposia page on the website of the Garden Museum, where a symposium programme will shortly be published. 

The Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Rd London SE1 7LB 020 7401 8865