Ottoman, One of a pair of pistols, c.1793 | RCIN 62832  Royal Collection Trust / © HM King Charles III 2023

Fath Ali Shah Qajar, Divan-i Khaqan, 1802–03 | RCIN 1005020  Royal Collection Trust / © HM King Charles III 2023

“PRESENTS AND PROTOCOL:

GLOBAL DIPLOMATIC GIFTS

IN GEORGIAN ENGLAND, 1793-1820”

TALK, on ZOOM, by RACHEL PEAT,

Curator of Decorative Arts, Royal Collection Trust.

Tuesday, 16 January 2024, 4-5pm on Zoom

Envoys to Georgian England invariably brought a dazzling array of diplomatic gifts. From Persian carpets to coral-encrusted pistols, from paintings and silks to live ostriches, these costly presents conjured distant worlds at the heart of the British Court. Their reception and display not only cemented global relations, but shaped royal artistic taste for generations to come.

This lecture will consider the Ottoman, Persian and Algerian ambassadors to George III and the Prince Regent, and the precious gifts they presented at public and private audiences. Illustrated by lavish works still in the Royal Collection, it will shed new light on rituals of gift-giving at the turn of the nineteenth century. Diaries, newspaper reports and the lively records of the Lord Chamberlain’s Department meanwhile reveal how ceremonial was adapted and invented for ‘exotic’ visitors – causing a combination of confusion, honour and offence.

We are pleased to welcome back an excellent speaker, Rachel Peat, Curator of Decorative Arts at Royal Collection Trust. She is a contributing author to George IV: Art & Spectacle (2019) and editor of Japan: Courts and Culture (2020).

Price per ticket: £10 per viewer.

To book a place please click HERE

Booking closes 15th January 2024