This event has been canceled. Look for it to be rescheduled in the Fall.

Please join the Huguenot Society of South Carolina and the Middleton Place Foundation for a special Book talk as esteemed author and Decorative Arts authority Dr. Tessa Murdoch presents an introduction to her new book, Europe Divided: Huguenot Refugee Art and Culture (V&A, 2021). The book celebrates the lives, talents, and wares of skilled Huguenot refugees who fled France and ultimately elevated the design and workshop practice of luxury trades the world over. Indeed, Middleton Place exhibits objects detailed in Europe Divided.

Luncheon will be served, and wine will be available beforehand. Following the presentation, guests may purchase Europe Divided and meet the author. And guests who register in advance will be guided on small-group tours of the Middleton Place House Museum.

About the Author

Dr. Tessa Murdoch FSA worked at the Museum of London 1981-1990 where in 1985 she curated the exhibition The Quiet Conquest: The Huguenots 1685-1985 and edited the accompanying catalogue. Tessa worked at the V&A from 1990 as Curator of Furniture and from 2002-2018 as Deputy Keeper, Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass. In 2019, as V&A Rosalind and Arthur Gilbert Research Curator,  she was Getty Rothschild Fellow at the Getty Research Institute and Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire writing her latest book Europe Divided: Huguenot Refugee Art and Culture (V&A, 2021). She is a consultant for Great Irish Households: Inventories from the long eighteenth century (John Adamson, forthcoming Spring 2022). For Bloomsbury, she is co-editing with Dr Heike Zech A Cultural History of Craft in the Age of Enlightenment for publication in 2024

Tessa advises the National Trust and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, is a Board Member of the Idlewild Trust, and Chair of the Trustees of the Huguenot Museum in Rochester, Kent. She is a livery member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and serves on their Contemporary Craft Committee. She has been a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries since 1988.

Seating for this special event is limited and tickets must be purchased in advance.