Reassessing the Production of the Chelsea Maypole Group, 1755

In October 2025 I presented at the 30th meeting of the Artefacts Consortium at the Norsk Teknisk Museum, Oslo. The meeting was exciting both as a rare gathering of repair-enthusiasts, and as an opportunity to enter into a varied community of science and technology scholars and collections professionals.

My paper, ‘Reassessing the Production of the Chelsea Maypole Group, 1755’, was the output of a two-year project to conserve one of the largest surviving figure groups from the Chelsea manufactory. It argued that repair was a part of the group’s very fabrication; that rather than being a process of breakdown and waste, repair was an essential part of experimentation and boundary pushing in the early English porcelain industry.

This work is now forthcoming as a peer-reviewed volume chapter. The paper and chapter were co-authored with Fitzwilliam Colleagues technical art historian Paul Van Laar, heritage scientist Giulia Moretti, and conservator Jessica Mantoan.