SPECIAL EVENTS

Rienzi Center for European Decorative Arts, MFAH presents Punch Party: The 18th Century Imbiber, Thursday, September 29, at 7pm. Rienzi hosts a jolly celebration in honor of the new exhibition English Taste: The Art of Dining in the Eighteenth Century.

Travel through time to the mid-1700s for a “punch party” exploring historic English punch: a blend of spirits, citrus, sugar, and spices. During this jovial evening, guests sample original 18th-century cocktail recipes and enjoy light savories while socializing on Rienzi’s terrace to the sounds of AMP'D,  Divisi Strings' contemporary quartet.

Rienzi is the center for European decorative arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Comprising a remarkable art collection, and a house and gardens, Rienzi was given to the museum by arts patrons Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III.

The 18th-century English dinner table was a feast for the eyes. In order to impress their guests and assure them that they were dining amid fashionable people of consequence, hosts served sumptuous dishes, adorned with towering sugar constructions and amusing trompe l'oeil (fool-the-eye) jellies of playing cards or bacon and eggs, all on exquisite silver and porcelain.

Rienzi re-creates this elaborate dining experience in English Taste: The Art of Dining in the Eighteenth Century. The first special exhibition ever held at Rienzi, the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts, English Taste treats you to a dining-room extravaganza typical of a 1760s English country house.