28 September 2022
This year's Harrison Lecture was delivered by Tabea Rude, Curator and Conservator at the Vienna Clock Museum. The lecture was held at the Michaelmas Court dinner on Wednesday 28 September at the Clothworkers’ Hall, in the City of London and generously sponsored by Bonhams.
The title of the lecture was: Forever addicted to the mechanical – Rudolf Kaftan and the Vienna Clock Museum.
In this fascinating and informative lecture Tabea Rude outlined the story of the Vienna Clock Museum and in particular it first curator and visionary collector, Rudolf Kaftan, who lived above the Museum until 1961. Her lecture explored the remarkable life of Kaftan, his role in the creation of the Museum and the extraordinary story of its survival, adaptation and expansion through a turbulent century for Central Europe.
Tabea Rude trained as a watchmaker at the Pforzheim Watchmaking School, Germany, moving to West Dean College in the UK to study the conservation of clocks and dynamic objects. After finishing her Masters in 2015, she worked at the Clockworks Museum in London as a freelance conservator. In 2017, she was appointed conservator/curator at the Vienna Clock Museum. Tabea's work involves the care of approximately 7000 objects, 700 of which are exhibited in an historic house in the centre of Vienna.
To view an excellent video of the lecture please click on this link: https://youtu.be/9LJYS29kC50
