V&A Wedgwood Collection Launches Majolica Project to Conserve and Digitize Pattern Books

The V&A Wedgwood Collection has initiated the Majolica Project, funded by the Majolica International Society, to conserve, digitize, and catalog five 19th-century majolica pattern books. Three books belonged to Josiah Wedgwood & Sons and two to George Jones & Sons Ltd, a company known for high-quality majolica that ceased production in the 1950s and was later acquired by Wedgwood. The project began in April 2026 with cataloguer work and follows a 2023 touring exhibition 'Majolica Mania: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States 1850-1915' at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, which sparked renewed interest. Conservation was handled by specialist Lisa Williams, who repaired the fragile Wedgwood volumes and deacidified the disintegrating George Jones books, placing pages in protective sleeves. Digitization at the V&A's South Kensington site involved photographers Charlotte Stanley and Louie Morris using overhead cameras with foam supports and black velvet backgrounds. The cataloguing phase aims to create detailed entries linking pattern numbers to objects like tortoise sardine boxes and dragon flowerpots, to be published online via Search the Archives. Majolica, a brightly colored lead-glazed pottery developed in the 1850s, reflects Victorian interests in nature and global design traditions, inspired by Renaissance Italian maiolica.