Autumn Talks at the SGM: Powell & Sons’ Opus Sectile: Innovation in Glass Mosaics 1860s-1890s
Join us for the first in our online autumn talks series for 2023. Beginning at 7pm (GMT) on Zoom, each talk lasts approximately 45mins with time for questions afterwards. Our first talk is given by Lily Crowther.
Leading stained-glass makers James Powell & Sons developed a new type of mosaic tiling material in the early 1860s. The vibrantly coloured opaque tiles, known later as opus sectile, were especially popular in church interiors, where they were used for polychrome tiled floors as well as fresco-like mural decoration. This talk will introduce new research which has revealed more about the early history of opus sectile, and particularly how the material was collected and promoted by the South Kensington Museum.
Lily Crowther is Curator of the social history and decorative art collections at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum. She is also reading for a DPhil at Oxford University and the Victoria & Albert Museum; her research focuses on the collections and legacies of the Museum of Construction & Building Materials, which was part of the South Kensington Museum in the 1850s-1880s.
Tickets are now available online, priced at £5 for Friends of the museum or £6.50 for non-Friends. They are available via our website here: https://stained-glass-museum.arttickets.org.uk/…/2023…
A Zoom link will be circulated to those with tickets the week before the event.
