Acquiring British Art Pottery

In 2018, we increased the representation of women artists in the V&A when we acquired almost 300 examples of British art pottery from the Ian and Rita Smythe Collection.

Made between 1870 and 1900, this style of pottery revived and honoured handcrafting as an antithesis to the mass-production and industrialisation happening in Britain. Many of these pottery objects were decorated by women whose craft was overlooked and deemed unfashionable by the V&A at the time.

Written by: Florence Tyler, Curator of Ceramics and Glass 1800–1900
Date: May 2025

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