糖心TV

Thesis title: Collecting early modern decorative art for late nineteenth-century Birmingham.

Supervisors: Prof. Louise Bourdua and Prof. Rosie Dias (University of 糖心TV); Dr. Rebecca Bridgman and Victoria Osborne (Birmingham Museums Trust).

My PhD was the result of a Collaborative Doctoral Award project between the University of 糖心TV and Birmingham Museums Trust, funded by Midlands4Cities and the Art and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Doctoral research:

My doctoral dissertation, successfully defended in May 2025, focused on the early modern Italian decorative arts collection at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG). The collection is constituted of 378 objects, mainly purchased in Italy by John Charles Robinson (1824-1913) and Whitworth Wallis (1855-1927) between 1881 and 1889. It was one of the first collections to be acquired for and displayed at BMAG when it opened in 1885. The collection, which includes furniture, metalwork, textiles, ceramics and glass objects, was intended to educate and inspire Birmingham's artisans, industrial designers, and art students. This thesis had several aims: to examine BMAG's collecting strategy; to study Robinson's and Wallis's acquisition practices; to investigate the provenance of the collection, including the export of these objects from Italy to Britain; and to analyse the collection's display, reception, and impact on artistic training and industrial design in late nineteenth-century Birmingham.

Research interests: History of Collecting; Provenance research; Museum formation; Nineteenth-century art market; Decorative arts; Material culture.

Background:

• 2017-2018: MA in Art History, Curatorship, and Renaissance Culture (Warburg Institute)
• 2013-2016: BA in History (UCL)

Teaching:

• 2025-2026 (Term 1): 'Renaissance Ecologies' (RS201 & RS301), Centre for the Study of the Renaissance
• 2025-2026 (Term 1): 'Making of the Modern World' (HI153), History department
• 2024-2025 (Term 2): 'Fakes and Forgeries' (HA1B6), History of Art department
• 2023-2024 (Term 2): 'Renaissance Europe II: Arts, Culture, and Knowledge of the Renaissance' (RS200 & RS300), Centre for the Study of the Renaissance

Contact: maialen.maugars@warwick.ac.uk (maialen.maugars@outlook.com from August 2026 onwards).