Sculpture court in Albert Institute, Dundee, in 1906 (c) Libraries, Leisure and Culture Dundee

About us

Welcome to our resources for people creating, using and caring for replicas:

Replicas and originals often sit between places, collections and sectors, and are subject to inconsistent, different and divergent practices, which may include inertia and invisibility. We seek to change this.

So, this is the place for joined-up thinking about and working with replicas, particularly analogue replicas, informed by current ideas about authenticity, value and significance.

  • Cover of leaflet. Design: Christina Unwin
  • The 1970 replica of the St John's Cross, Iona, casts a shadow on the 1955/6 reconstruction of the burial place of St Columba (c) Sally Foster
  • Cast Court in Victoria and Albert Museum, London, monuments from north-west Europe (c) Sally Foster
  • Copy of the Sanchi Gate from India, in Berlin museum courtyard (c) Sally Foster
  • Shelving in a plaster-cast manufacturing workshop in Berlin, stacked with piece moulds (c) Sally Foster
  • A close-up of the spines of books about replicas (c) Sally Foster
  • Proud engineer, artists and craftsmen standing by recently made concrete replica of St John's Cross, Iona. Photographer Arthur Macgregor, (c) courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland (J R Scott Collection)
  • Photograph of a V&A conservator standing in front of a plaster cast in the Cast Courts, describing her work (c) Sally Foster
  • Interior view of reception area of Royal Cast Collection, Copenhagen (c) Sally Foster
  • Some of the attendees at 28 November 2019 workshop held in National Museums Scotland, shown replicas of archaeological objects by Senior Curator Dr Alice Blackwell (c) Sally Foster
  • Sculpture court in Albert Institute, Dundee, in 1906 (c) Libraries, Leisure and Culture Dundee
  • Detail of a well-preserved historic plaster cast, with later painted surface (c) Sally Foster, by kind permission of National Museums Scotland
  • Plaster cast of lion from St Mark's Venice, with runic inscriptions, Swedish History Museum (c) Sally Foster
  • Contemporary craftsperson creating a replica (c) University of St Andrews
  • Visitors engage with replica lying over carved bedrock at Dunadd, Scotand (c) Sally Foster
  • Replicas of artefacts in the Oud Europa collection of National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden c) National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden
  • eplica of Roman shipwreck discovered in 1981/2 during development of the Hilton Hotel, Mainz (c) Sally Foster
  • Detail of plaster casts of the St Andrews Sarcophagus, in St Andrews Museum (c) Sally Foster
  • Touching the St John's Cross, Iona (c) Sally Foster, hand of Jonquil Alpe, her mother
  • Dr Susanne Turner inspecting a large plaster cast of the Farnese Hercules (c) Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge
  • Examining plaster casts of early medieval carvings in the Custom House, Leith (c) Doug Simpson, courtesy of National Museums Scotland
  • Plaster casts in the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine / Musée des Monuments français, Paris (c) Sally Foster
  • Royal Cast Collection, Copenhagen (c) Sally Foster
  • Visitors look at the modern recreation of the Pictish Hilton of Cadboll cross-slab. (c) Sian Jones
  • Replica of Michelangelo's David, standing outside museum (c) Rod McCullagh
  • Abguss-Sammlung Antiker Plastik Berlin (c) Sally Foster
  • Concrete replica of Ardre picture stone, Gotland, Sweden (c) Sally Foster
  • Modern sculptors at work on a recreation of a Roman sculpture (c) Louisa Campbell

Gallery images (credit not photo order): © Louisa Campbell; © Sally Foster; photographer Arthur Macgregor and photographer Murdo MacKenzie, © courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland (J R Scott Collection); © courtesy of HES (early photographs of sculptured stones); © Siân Jones; Libraries, Leisure and Culture Dundee; © Rod McCullagh; © Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge; © Doug Simpson, by kind permission National Museums Scotland; © National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden; © University of St Andrews. Contact us if you need details of copyright holder for a specific image in the gallery above.

Website launched July 2020.

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