Fan of The French Porcelain Society

27/07/2026

Job Alert: British Museum!
Project Curator Eighteenth Century, Britain and Europe Documentation. One year full-time

£36,396. Please share!

Deadline for application: Wednesday, August 12, 2026

The British Museum is undertaking its biggest transformation since its founding nearly 300 years ago. This physical and intellectual transformation includes large-scale building and gallery transformation, new ways of connecting with audiences and different ways of working. As we look towards this exciting future, we remain guided by the words of our founder Hans Sloane - who dreamed of a museum connecting all arts and sciences, which would be accessible to everyone, everywhere.

For details, click on the link.

https://bmrecruit.ciphr-irecruit.com/Applicants/vacancy/8917/Project-Curator-Eighteenth-Century-Britain-and-Europe-Documentation

19/07/2026

More ceramics from Brussels, a small display of stoneware at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique or Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België). And for good measure some pots in paintings.

Few ceramics are online, but perhaps one can search by the donor: Donation Dr. et Mme Frans Heulens-Van der Meiren, Bruxelles, 1988

https://fine-arts-museum.be/fr/la-collection/creussen-cruche-dite-aux-douze-apotres

18/07/2026

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon will reopen to the public on 18 July 2026, following eighteen months of restoration. The project coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and was conceived not as a transformation of the museum, but rather as a return to the original vision that guided its design and opening in 1969. The museum was designed by architects Ruy Jervis d’Athouguia, Pedro Cid, and Alberto Pessoa, with contributions from internationally renowned consultants, including French museologist Georges-Henri Rivière and Italian architect Franco Albini. From the moment of its inauguration, the project stood out for the close relationship established between the exhibition spaces and the surrounding garden, conceived as an integral part of the visitor experience. Over the decades, however, numerous interventions had altered this approach, changing some of the installations and replacing the original materials and finishes. The main objective of the recent redisplay was to restore the balance between architecture, works of art, and nature that had made the complex an international benchmark for contemporary museography.

18/07/2026

Update!

The amazing online database for the Royal Porcelain Collection Dresden, is back! Almost six-months after it was the victim of a cyber attack. While the Asian ceramics are completed, they are working on the Meissen, and an interesting feature is that they are capturing and including images of Meissen porcelain with incised Johanneum marks on the website, an added feature!

https://royalporcelaincollection.skd.museum/explorer?searchString=porcelain&mode=0&fbclid=IwY2xjawTIP2NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe8Nca2bg82Pc7Z42jiZwYBJYXpnyKG5l7P4KZ5kHhYq4nNBGMa5z6XSZQkUQ_aem_bTZQ4lsyqkdBtPnYTKVQow

16/07/2026

Even more highlights of the important collection of ceramics and decorative art in the galleries of the Royal Museums of Art and History ((MRAH) Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire), in Brussels, Belgium. The Musées Royaux includes several sites, but MRAH is located in Cinquantenaire Park, near Merode metro stop, built in 1880 for an exhibition, but with many later additions. Nearby is Maison Antoine, considered one of the best frit huts in Belgium.
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https://www.artandhistory.museum/en/plaster-cast-workshop

https://www.artandhistory.museum/en/wolfers-shop

15/07/2026

More highlights of the important 18th century collections of ceramics and decorative art, redisplayed in 2024, several galleries of the Royal Museums of Art and History ((MRAH) Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire), in Brussels, Belgium. Congratulations to Valérie Montens, curator of ceramics, glass and stained glass.

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https://www.artandhistory.museum/en/decorative-arts-18th-century

14/07/2026

Since 2024, highlights of the important 18th century collections of ceramics and decorative art have been redisplayed in several galleries of the Royal Museums of Art and History ((MRAH) Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire), in Brussels, Belgium. Congratulations to Valérie Montens, curator of ceramics, glass and stained glass for her wonderful selection, labels (in three languages, including English) and display. The Musées Royaux includes several sites, but MRAH is located in Cinquantenaire Park, near Merode metro stop, and built in 1880 for an exhibition, but with many later additions. Nearby is Maison Antoine, considered one of the best fritkot or friterie in Belgium for fries 🍟

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https://www.artandhistory.museum/en/decorative-arts-18th-century

29/06/2026

ONLINE Conference: FREE (Please Share)

Second Annual International Conference on European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

'Sculpture and Trompe l’œil in European Ceramics, from Bernard Palissy to the Present Day'

12 and 13 July 2026

This international conference explores the rich and under-studied relationship between sculpture, trompe l’œil and European ceramics, from the Renaissance to the present day. Organised jointly by the Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Maîtres Ébénistes and the Low Countries Sculpture Society, the event builds on the success of its inaugural edition in 2025.

Focusing on ceramics as a sculptural medium, the conference will examine figurative sculpture in the round, relief, illusionistic effects and the imitation of materials such as wood and precious stone. Papers will address questions of production, design history, collecting and display, as well as collaborations between artists, artisans and manufacturers. While drawing particular attention to the ceramic traditions of the Low Countries, the programme spans Europe and North America and includes Art Deco and contemporary practice.

The conference will take place without audience (apart from the speakers, moderators and a few benefactors), but it will be filmed and broadcast live on YouTube for free, on our dedicated channel, https://www.youtube.com/
Proceedings will be published in 2027 in a new academic journal dedicated to European sculpture and decorative arts.

For further information, contact: [email protected].

Programme
Sunday 12th July 2026
9.30-10.00: Dr Léon Lock, The Low Countries Sculpture Society
Introduction

Session 1: Trompe l’œil and mimesis I
Moderator: Errol Manners, historic ceramics specialist, London
10.05-10.50:
Patricia Ferguson, London
Nature, Artifice and Spectacle: the Conceit of a Lettuce as Large as Life for the European Table in the mid-18th century
10.50-11.00: Discussion
11.00-11.30: Break
11.30-12.00:
Melody Hsu, McGill University, Montreal
Book Flask: Trompe l’Œil and Deception in Early Modern Europe
12.05-12.35:
Mariette Boudgourd, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
Jardinières bûches, verres paysages et cendriers poissons. De nouvelles formes de la nature « genre Palissy » au XIXe siècle en France
12.35-12.45: Discussion
12.45-14.00: Lunch Break

Session 2: Trompe l’œil and mimesis II
Moderator: Prof em Dr Volker Seiberth, University of Heidelberg / The Low Countries Sculpture Society
14.00-14.30: Prof Dr Nadia Mariana Consiglieri, Universidad de Buenos Aires (online)
Reptiles, amphibians and trompe l’œil in a Bernard Palissy ceramic piece from the Museum of Decorative Arts in Buenos Aires
14.35-15.05: Carina-Nathalia Madonna Visconti-Paff, Sapienza Università di Roma
The Illusion of Lustre: Trompe l’œil in Hungarian Zsolnay Ceramics – Eosin Imitations of Metals and Nature in the Art Nouveau Style
15.05-15.15: Discussion
15.15-15.45: Break

Session 3: The sculptor and the sculptural in ceramics
Moderator: Bernard Dragesco, Galerie Dragesco-Cramoisan, Paris/Château de Barly
15.45-16.15: Jean-Dominique Augarde, Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Maîtres Ebénistes, Paris/Mons
Piat Joseph Sauvage et le Salon de 1798
16.20-17.05: Errol Manners, historic ceramics specialist, London
Keynote Lecture: Louis-François Roubiliac and Chelsea porcelain, a reassessment Discussion
17.05-17.15: Discussion

Monday 13th July 2026

Session 4: Manufactures, workshops and sculptors in ceramics
Moderator: Sylvie Millasseau-Wengraf, art historian, Switzerland
9.30-10.00:
Valérie Montens, Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels and
Elise Urbain Ruano, Domaine & Musée royal de Mariemont
Entre virtuosité technique et langage décoratif : la sculpture en porcelaine à la manufacture d’Ixelles de 1830 à 1953
10.05-10.50:
Carys Wilkins et Claire Blakey, National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh
European ceramic sculpture rediscovered at National Museums Scotland
10.55-11.25:
Grégory Maugé, Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Maîtres Ébénistes, Paris / Mons and Dr Léon Lock, The Low Countries Sculpture Society, Brussels / Mons
La sculpture en céramique en Hainaut au XXe siècle
11.25-11.35: Discussion
11.35-12.05: Break
12.05-12.20: Conclusion

The above programme is non-contractual and subject to change without notice.

23/06/2026

Conference: Český Krumlov

Magical, Flying and Confidence Tables: Intimate Dining of the 18th-Century Nobility International Conference

11–13 October 2026

If you are interested in the history of mechanical dining tables and food, this conference is for you! Its in the Czech town of Český Krumlov, and focused on the Magical 'flying table', which raises from below the floor boards, laden with food and dishes, in the Bellaria Summer Palace, with Ivan Day, Stéphane Castelluccio and Samuel Wittwer.

During the reign of Prince Josef Adam of Schwarzenberg, the Bellaria was rebuilt in Rococo style to its present form. Inside the upper terrace, rooms were carved out of the rock for a kitchen, a food elevator (the Magic Table), and a "grotto" or artificial cave (1745-46). The interior walls of the Lower and Upper Halls were decorated with typically illusionistic paintings by František Jakub Prokyš.

The programme includes a rare demonstration of the restored 1760 Magical Table, visits to the Baroque Theatre and historic kitchens, and discussions of the restoration, symbolism, and enduring legacy of these extraordinary mechanical inventions.

The three-day conference package costs €600. Places are strictly limited to 20 participants and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Details:

https://www.nzm.cz/en/research/research-projects-and-conferences-conducted-in-english/magical-flying-and-confidence-tables-intimate-dining-of-the-18th-century-nobility-international-conference

Programme:

https://www.nzm.cz/en/research/research-projects-and-conferences-conducted-in-english/magical-flying-and-confidence-tables-intimate-dining-of-the-18th-century-nobility-international-conference/conference-programme

23/06/2026

James Kiernan, 2nd year AHRC-funded CDP PhD student, has recently published a blog post about his work with the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. James’ research focuses on the ceramic and glass collections now held at the V&A that were transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology (MPG) in 1901. Using a watercolour of the MPG painted in 1875 by John Philipps Emslie (1839 – 1913), this post explores how objects shown in a 19th-century display case can be identified in the V&A’s collections today. It offers an example of how close looking at images and objects can help reconnect museum collections with their earlier histories of display. Readers may recall the MPG was also studied by Susan Newell who went on to do a PhD on Geological Museums.

James’ research focuses on the ceramic and glass collections now held at the V&A that were transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology (MPG) in 1901. Using a watercolour of the MPG painted in 1875...