Conservator (Metalwork)

The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art, design, and performance, housing a collection of over 2.3 million objects that document 5,000 years of human creativity from across six continents. The Museum holds many of UK’s designated National Collections, including sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, têxtiles, and furniture. The Metalwork collection contains over 45,000 examples of decorative metalwork, silver and jewellery ranging in date from the Bronze Age to the present day. It includes an unrivalled collection of English silver, an outstandingly comprehensive collection of jewellery, and internationally significant collections of ironwork, continental silver, arms and armour, medieval champlevé and late 19th-century enamels, brass and bronze work, pewter, steel, cutlery, ormolu, Sheffield Plate, electrotypes, and medieval metalwork of international importance. The pre-1800 German silver collection is the largest outside Germany and Russia.

As a Conservator with specialism in metals you will be part of the Furniture, Metals, Paintings and Frames Conservation team. You will have a good practical knowledge of metals and related materials, their structure, degradation processes and conservation techniques. You will undertake all aspects of preventive and interventive conservation of the metalwork collection and contribute to the care of mixed media objects incorporating metal elements from across the collection (including architectural elements, sculpture, and furniture) and have the ability to evaluate conservation problems, develop solutions and produce practical work and documentation of a high standard. You will have experience in planning, prioritising, and delivering to deadlines objects for new gallery developments, exhibitions, loans and collections care. You will also have a sound knowledge of scientific analysis and techniques to allow technical examination of objects with the aim of contributing to an understanding of their history and technique.