Evening Conversation
Drinks reception: 6:30pm
Conversation: 7:00pm
Close: 8:00pm 

Rufus Bird will be presenting an overview of Chinese and Japanese works of art in the collection of Her Majesty on the occasion of the publication of the three-volume catalogue raisonné. Taking twenty years to complete, the catalogue raisonné comprises 2,000 catalogue entries written by John Ayers, former Keeper of the Far Eastern Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, covering hundreds of porcelains, quantities of jades and enamels, dozens of lacquers and two musical instruments. This important publication documents Britain's contact with Asia through the diplomatic exchange of works of art.

In addition, Mr. Bird will discuss his own specialization of European gilt bronze mounts applied to porcelains and lacquers, and the appropriation of Asian objects as a decorative leitmotif running through the Royal residences beginning in the late seventeenth century.

Rufus Bird has been Deputy Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art at Royal Collection Trust, a department of The Royal Household since 2010. He has curatorial responsibility for all decorative arts in the Royal Collection, about half a million objects across thirteen residences. His team conserves, publishes and displays the decorative arts in The Queen's Galleries and Residences. He also sits on the Management Board of Royal Collection Trust.

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