From Pottery Porcelain: Production and Preservation in the Heart of England

2015’s two-day ICON Ceramics and Glass Group conference was held in Worcester with a good demographic of around forty delegates in attendance. Conservators from the museum sector and private practice attended as well as students from many of the conservation courses throughout the UK.

The first day started with a trip to the Royal Worcester Porcelain Museum where we a received a talk from Master Potter Roger Green who explained the design, development and casting process used by Royal Worcester to create their figurines. Following this the group was given a tour of the museum (the world’s largest collection of Royal Worcester porcelain) by the great Henry Sandon of Antiques Roadshow fame! This was one of the highlights of the conference, his knowledge is second to none and his enthusiasm and love for porcelain are infectious.

After lunch there was a wonderful tour of Worcester Cathedral given by three very knowledgeable guides. Perhaps the area of the cathedral that made the greatest impression on me is the section that was left unrestored during the 19^th century renovations as a lasting reminder of the devastation caused by the reformation and the English civil war.

The second day of the conference comprised of presentations from both practicing conservators and students. All of the talks were highly informative, however, there were some standouts among the group. Jerrod Seifert, student at Cardiff University gave an excellent presentation on the use of enzymes for adhesive removal on ceramics. Peter David, a private ceramics conservator regaled the audience with the story of an exceptionally hot gallery (120^oF), the havoc it wreaked on the adhesive holding shelves of ceramics in place and the subsequent conservation works that were undertaken to repair the damage caused when the shelves decided to take a southerly journey.

Two colleagues and I, from the University of Lincoln gave our first ever conference presentation regarding the conservation and restoration of some replica terracotta warriors and the digital replication of a missing warrior head. Digital copies of most of the presentations are available through the ICON website. To summarise the two days, I drank a lot of tea, met many lovely people and learned a great deal; it was thoroughly enjoyable and interesting two days.

Written by Anna Stone, MA student at the University of Lincoln.