Lars Tharp

Last updated

Lars Broholm Tharp
FSA
Born(1954-03-27)27 March 1954
Copenhagen, Denmark
Education Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys
Alma mater Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Historian, lecturer and broadcaster
Notable workTreasures of Chinese Porcelain (BBC 2011); China in Six Easy Pieces (BBC 2013); Hogarth’s China (1997)
Televisionnumerous TV and radio series, documentaries, including (since 1986) Antiques Roadshow Quizeum ‘ (arts quiz) ‘One Man and his Pug’ (Hogarth); ‘Hogarth in Europe’ Tate Exhibition (2021–22) (contributor)
SpouseGillian
ChildrenHelena, Georgina
AwardsHonDArt(DMU), HonDLit (Leicester U), FSA, DL
Website www.tharp.co.uk

Lars Broholm Tharp (born 27 March 1954, Copenhagen, Denmark) [1] is a Danish-born British historian, lecturer and broadcaster, and one of the longest running 'experts' on the BBC antiques programme, Antiques Roadshow , first appearing in 1986.

Contents

Early life and education

Tharp was born in Copenhagen on 27 March 1954, the son of Harry Tharp and Anne Marie Broholm. [1] His maternal grandfather was the keeper of Antiquities at the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen and an expert on the Bronze Age. [2] After moving to England aged six, Lars was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester, England, before studying for an undergraduate degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. [1]

Career

In 1977, a year after graduating, Tharp began working as an auctioneer at Sotheby's, where he specialised in European and Chinese ceramics. [1] Tharp continued to work with Sotheby's for sixteen years, becoming a director in 1983. [1] He left to form his own company Lars Tharp Ltd in 1993. In 2008 he was appointed the Director of the Foundling Museum in London, and Visiting Professor at De Montfort University, Leicester. Since 2010 Tharp has represented the Foundling Museum as its ‘Hogarth Curator’. As a ceramic historian Tharp also contributed to the major Tate Gallery exhibition ‘Hogarth and Europe’ and during its run(Nov 2021-March 2022), delivering a keynote speech at Colonial Williamsburg VA

Tharp is also well known[ citation needed ] for his regular appearances (1986 to present) as a ceramics expert on the BBC’s globally seen antiques programme Antiques Roadshow .

Representing Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, he joined team-members Helen Castor, Mark Damazer (captain) and Quentin Stafford-Fraser to win the Alumni University Challenge 2013.

Tharp is a noted William Hogarth enthusiast. Noting The artist's theatrical use of ceramics in his paintings and prints he wrote Hogarth's China to accompany an exhibition timed to commemorate the artist's tercentenary (1997). The exhibition was expanded and ran at Wedgwood in the following year.

Tharp devised three further exhibitions for York Museum Trust under the umbrella 'Celebrating Ceramics' (2003). He was a member of YMT's steering group setting up their Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA).

Tharp has received two Honorary Doctorates: from De Montfort University (HonDArt); and from Leicester University (HonDLitt) and was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2010. He serves on the court of England's oldest recorded guild, the Worshipful Company of Weavers (est. by 1130AD).

An accredited speaker for (inter alia) The Arts Society (NADFAS), Tharp lectures throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia and leads cultural tours to China, Dresden, Scandinavia and within the UK.

In February 2021 Tharp was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire.

Personal life

Tharp lives in Leicestershire with his wife Gillian Block, whom he married in 1983. They have two daughters, Helena and Georgina, who share a birthday. [1]

Apart from antiques, Tharp has a particular interest in music, having played the cello since the age of eight. He also lists travel among his interests, leading cultural tours in Britain, China and Scandinavia. [1]

Media appearances

Television

All BBC unless stated:

Radio

Publications

Related Research Articles

<i>Antiques Roadshow</i> British television programme

Antiques Roadshow is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979, based on a 1977 documentary programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bly</span>

John Bly, , is an antiques dealer, author, after-dinner speaker and broadcaster who is best known from the BBC's Antiques Roadshow TV program (UK).

Timothy Wonnacott is an English chartered auctioneer, chartered surveyor, antiques expert, narrator, and a television presenter. He was previously a director of Sotheby's, one of the world's oldest auction houses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mintons</span> English pottery company (1793–2005)

Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Copenhagen</span> Danish manufacturer of porcelain products

Royal Copenhagen, officially the Royal Porcelain Factory, is a Danish manufacturer of porcelain products and was founded in Copenhagen in 1775 under the protection of Danish Dowager Queen Juliane Marie. It is recognized by its factory mark, the three wavy lines above each other, symbolizing Denmark's three water ways: Storebælt, Lillebælt and Øresund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leigh and Leslie Keno</span> American antique experts

Leigh Ronald Keno and Leslie Bernard Keno are American antiquarians, authors, historic car judges, preservationists and television hosts. They specialize in stoneware, early American furniture and vintage automobiles. They are widely known as appraisers on the PBS series Antiques Roadshow, for favoring preservation of antiques over restoration and for their high-energy personalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of East Asian Art, Bath</span> Museum in Bath, Somerset, England

The Museum of East Asian Art or MEAA is in Bennett Street, Bath, Somerset, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide Alsop Robineau</span> American potter

Adelaide Alsop Robineau (1865–1929) was an American china painter and potter, and is considered one of the top ceramists of American art pottery in her era.

David Battie FRSA is a British retired expert on ceramics, specialising in Japanese and Chinese artefacts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge</span> Constituent college of the University of Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius, is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of the wealthiest. In 1557, it was refounded by alumnus John Caius. The college has been attended by many students who have gone on to significant accomplishment, including fifteen Nobel Prize winners, the second highest of any Oxbridge college.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Atterbury</span> British antiques expert

Paul Rowley Atterbury, FRSA is a British antiques expert, known for his many appearances since 1979 on the BBC TV programme Antiques Roadshow. He specialises in the art, architecture, design and decorative arts of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Jon Baddeley is a fine art auctioneer, an authority on scientific instruments and collectables, a broadcaster and an author.

<i>Antiques Roadshow</i> (American TV program) American television program

Antiques Roadshow is an American television program broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television stations. The program features local antiques owners who bring in items to be appraised by experts. Provenance, history, and value of the items are discussed. Based on the original British Antiques Roadshow, which premiered in 1979, the American version first aired in 1997. When taping locations are decided, they are announced on the program's website raising the profile of various small to mid-size cities, such as Billings, Montana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Bismarck, North Dakota; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and Rapid City, South Dakota. Antiques Roadshow has been nominated 16 times for a Primetime Emmy.

Mark Hill is a British antiques expert, TV presenter, author and publisher.

<i>Magistrate of Brussels</i> Unfinished oil painting or sketch by Anthony van Dyck

Magistrate of Brussels is an unfinished oil painting or oil sketch by Anthony van Dyck, rediscovered in 2013 after being shown on episodes of the BBC television programme Antiques Roadshow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese export porcelain</span>

Japanese export porcelain includes a wide range of porcelain that was made and decorated in Japan primarily for export to Europe and later to North America, with significant quantities going to south and southeastern Asian markets. Production for export to the West falls almost entirely into two periods, firstly between the 1650s and 1740s, and then the period from the 1850s onwards.

Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys was a grammar school in Leicester, England, in existence from 1876 to 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Truman</span>

Charles Henry Truman, FSA, was an art historian and a leading authority on gold boxes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cozzi porcelain</span> Porcelain made by the Cozzi factory in Italy

Cozzi porcelain is porcelain made by the Cozzi factory in Venice, which operated between 1764 and 1812. Production included sculptural figurines, mostly left in plain glazed white, and tableware, mostly painted with floral designs or with figures in landscapes and buildings, in "bright but rough" colours. They were rather derivative, drawing from Meissen porcelain in particular in the early years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie Archer-Morgan</span> British antiques collector and television presenter

Ronnie Archer-Morgan is a television presenter and antiques collector, known for his appearance on the BBC Antiques Roadshow since 2011. He is also known for presenting the 2023 Channel 4 show Millionaire Hoarders, in which experts seek out valuable antiques from the homes of the rich.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 'THARP, Lars Broholm', Who's Who 2011 , A & C Black, 2011; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2010 (accessed 23 September 2011).
  2. David Battie and Fiona Malcolm (2005). The Antiques Roadshow. Mitchell Beazley. ISBN   1-84533-060-9.