Museum of Royal Worcester

The Museum of Royal Worcester (formerly Worcester Porcelain Museum and Dyson Perrins Museum) is a ceramics museum located in the Royal Worcester porcelain factory's former site in Worcester, England.

The museum houses the world’s largest collection of Worcester porcelain. The collections date back to 1751 and the Victorian gallery, the ceramic collections, archives and records of factory production, form the primary resource for the study of Worcester porcelain and its history.

The museum is the only part of Royal Worcester left at the Severn Street site in Worcester after the factory went into administration in 2008 and closed in 2009. The Royal Worcester Visitor Centre, the seconds shop and the cafe all closed with the factory in 2009.

The Museum of Royal Worcester was formerly known as the Museum of Worcester Porcelain and the Dyson Perrins Museum and Worcester Porcelain Museum, after Charles William Dyson Perrins of Worcestershire sauce fame. The collections includes pieces from the beginning of porcelain manufacturing in Worcester in 1751 until the closure of the Royal Worcester factory in Worcester. The museum is owned by the Dyson Perrins Museum Trust.

The Worcester Porcelain Museum collection is displayed in three permanent galleries: the Georgian Gallery, the Victorian Gallery and the Twentieth Century Gallery. The museum holds over 10,000 objects made between 1751 and 2009. The collections date back to the 18th century, when shapes and patterns were copied from the Far East for use in the homes of the very rich.

A display in the first gallery shows an 18th-century furnished room with a long case clock and table laid for dessert. A trio of hexagonal vases feature on the mantle piece in what would have been a gentleman's home.

In contrast, the Victorian gallery has deep colours, extravagant exhibition pieces, and works of great craftsmanship. Here it can be seen how travel influenced design and how with the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution more people could afford to buy fine works.

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