The French Silverware in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection

Peter Fuhring studied biology and art history at Leiden University and obtained his doctorate in 1994 with a study of the life and works of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695–1750), published in 1999. His thesis was awarded the Præmium Erasmianum and the J. W. Frederiks prize. A specialist in the history of ornament and design, he has published many articles and other works on drawings, ornament prints and the decorative arts and has organised several exhibitions on these subjects. He was the first to hold the Ottema Kingma chair in the History of Decorative Arts at Radboud University in Nijmegen (2005–9). He was the lead author of the catalogue of the Jourdan Barry silver collection (2005) and also organised the exhibition Designing the Décor: French Drawings of the Eighteenth Century (2005–6) at the Gulbenkian Museum. From 2005 to 2022, Peter Fuhring has worked for the Fondation Custodia in Paris, on the Marques de collections de dessins & d’estampes by Frits Lugt, for which an online database was created in 2010.