National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh

In 2015, David and Anne Hyatt King donated a significant part of their ceramic collection– 446 Japanese and 71 Chinese pieces – to National Museums Scotland (NMS) through the Art Fund. The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and the Oriental Museum at Durham University also received parts of the collection. 

Unpacking the King collection was time-consuming. In addition to the original wrapping cloth and wooden presentation box of many pieces, each package had ample quantities of packing materials. The amount of time and effort spent protecting each piece demonstrates how passionately and effectively the Kings cared for their collection, and we also benefited from the records and receipts that they kept.

The 517-strong collection of ceramics from the Kings that NMS received were initially spread across three different buildings at the National Museum Collections Centre in the north of Edinburgh. 

This separation was based on their size and the storage space available at the time – including trays and open roller racking – which was less than ideal, and prompted us to re-evaluate their storage to facilitate access and engagement (in the first instance by our own curators and visiting researchers). 

A small decommissioned workshop was stripped out and set up as a dedicated space using existing, surplus open shelving units, which we fixed to the walls for stability and lined with sheets of Plastazote. 

To facilitate the study of individual pieces, types and the collection as a whole, we decided to bring the works together in one place and organise them by school and date to see what patterns might emerge. We coded each object label with initials for maker or ware, and a coloured dot to indicate the century: to take the Kings’ favourites as examples, SY for the Seifū Yohei lineage and HM for Hirado Mikawachi ware. 

The process of physically reorganising the ceramics is still ongoing. This regrouping will provide insights into Japanese ceramic collecting in the UK in the past 50 years, as well as into the Kings as collectors. The resultant knowledge will be disseminated to broader audiences through enhanced object records, online collection stories, blogs, displays and publications. A range of King ceramics will be displayed throughout our new East Asia gallery, which is opening in 2019, and a book on the collection is planned too. 

We hope that simple and low-cost measures such as storing the collection together and reusing surplus shelves can facilitate the more significant efforts to increase knowledge and appreciation of this collection.