China of the Most Fashionable Sort:
Chinese Export Porcelain in Colonial America October 15, 2015 at 6:30 PM
Ms. Suzanne Hood’s presentation of the same title will show how a decorative arts perspective broadens the stories archaeology can tell by highlighting one of the largest groups of artifacts recovered from Colonial America archaeological sites: Chinese Export Porcelain. First crossing the Atlantic with the settlers at Jamestown, this porcelain was a valuable commodity that served not only as a symbol of the society the settlers had left behind, but of the wealth and status of those who owned them. Ms. Hood will extrapolate archaeological evidence to bring complexity and nuance to the curatorial understanding of the Chinese porcelain that was present in the Colonial South. Within this context, she will include Charlestonian examples of pre-Drayton and Drayton owned pieces, which are now housed in the Drayton Hall Museum Collections as well as private collections.
Suzanne Findlen Hood is the curator of ceramics and glass at Colonial Williamsburg. Ms. Hood holds a B.A. in history from Wheaton College in Massachusetts and an M.A. from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture and the University of Delaware. Prior to her arrival at Colonial Williamsburg in 2002, Ms. Hood was employed at The Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her research focuses on ceramics owned and used in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America with a particular emphasis on archaeological ceramics, Chinese export porcelain, salt-glazed stoneware, and British pottery. Ms. Hood is co-author with Janine Skerry of Salt-Glazed Stoneware in Early America, winner of the American Ceramic Circle Book Award for 2009. Her most recent exhibition, China of the Most Fashionable Sort: Chinese Export Porcelain in Colonial America, is currently on view at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum in Colonial Williamsburg.
Doors open at 5:30pm with a Wine and Cheese Reception.
Presentations start promptly at 6:30pm.
No advance reservations; please arrive early as seating is limited.
All programs will be held at
South Carolina Society Hall
72 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC 29401
For more information about Drayton Hall’s Distinguished Speakers Series, including
sponsorship opportunities, please contact Tara White, development events coordinator,
at 843-769-2627 or e-mail twhite@draytonhall.org.
(Photo credit: Drayton Hall website)
-Submitted by Tidelines Editor