GLASS SOCIETY- FREE ZOOM LECTURE - Tuesday 21 July - In Sparkling Company - Glass and the cost of Social life in Britain during the 1700s - Speaker Christopher Maxwell

Image (C) The J. Paul Getty Museum

John,Lord Mountstuart, later 4th Earl & 1st Marques of Bute

Britain in the 1700s was complex, dynamic, and full of growth, whether industrial, geographical, intellectual or societal. The nation began the century under the leadership of a Dutch king (William III, r. 1689-1702), followed by a dynasty of Germans (the Hanoverians, r.1714-1837). Its aristocracy was educated on European Grand Tours, and its commercial, political and territorial ambitions stretched from North America to India, and from Africa to China. It was a world that fostered exploration, expansion and exploitation.

The British glass industry replaced that of Venice as the global leader during this period but, beyond its presence in dining and drinking rituals, little discussion has hitherto been made of the significance of glass in the lives of the nation’s elite during the 1700s.

FULL DETAILS and BOOKING