Peter Thornton
Peter Kai Thornton ( born April 8, 1925 in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England; † February 8, 2007 in Isleworth, Middlesex, England ) was an English art historian, museum curator and author.
Life
Thornton attended Bryanston School in Blandford Forum in the English county of Dorset before he went in 1942 at the De Havilland Aeronautical Technical School in Hertfordshire, which is part of the University of Hertfordshire today. His military service, he served in the Army Intelligence (Army Intelligence Corps ) from 1945 in Austria and studied from 1948, the German and Danish at the Trinity Hall of the University of Cambridge. During his studies he worked as a volunteer warden at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and then went to the National Art Collections Fund, now known as The Art Fund.
Thornton was in the years 1966-1984 the expert on furniture and woodwork of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and then from 1984 to 1995 curator of the Sir John Soane 's Museum in Lincoln 's Inn Fields in London.
Thornton's radical approach to the presentation of historical interiors for houses such as Ham House, Osterley Park and Apsley House made him known, as are his books on interior decoration in various European countries in the period from the 15th century.
Thornton has been married twice. From 1950 contracted marriage with Ann Helps come three daughters. In 2002, he married Lora Spindler.