I have published internationally on the history of modes of artistic, scientific, industrial, and commercial copying - replication, reproduction and rescaling.

From 2010-18, my research helped shape and inform the refurbishment of the historic Cast Courts and the displays and interpretations of the new Chitra Nirmal Sethia Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum London, which opened in December 2018.

I am co-author (with Angus Patterson) of The Museum and The Factory: The V&A, Elkington and the Electrical Revolution (V&A/Lund Humphries, 2018), a major object-led study of the 70-year relationship between Elkington & Co., the pioneering developers of electro-metallurgy, and the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A. Reviews:

• "... an exciting contribution that touches on so many aspects of 19th-century manufacture, innovation, business, and education." Martin Levy, Decorative Arts Society, 118, Spring 2020.
• "... a very important history of the early days of the Museum that is sending my mind spinning!" Adam Lowe, Factum Foundation.

Recent publications include: The Lives of the Great Makers (London: Thames and Hudson, 2025) and Global Bunyan and Visual Art (New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025). 

In 2021, I contributed to a book and consulted on an exhibition about the electrotype collection at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisboa, Portugal. A arte da eletrometalurgia: «Uma multitude de objetos simulados e substitutos perfeitos». In: Sousa, Ana and das Neves Afonso, André (eds.) «Tão Uteis Como Os Originaes» A Coleção de Galvanoplastias do MNAA. (Lisboa: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 2021) 30-53.

I have represented the V&A internationally as a keynote speaker on a range of topics, including:

• 'The Courtauld’s Fictile Ivories' at The Courtauld Institute, Somerset House and Vernon Square, London (June 2022)

• 'Adventures in Chemistry and Technology' at De Montfort University, Leicester (2020)

• ‘Celebrating Reproductions: Past, Present and Future’ at the V&A, London (2018)

• ‘Plywood: Material of the Modern World’ at the V&A, London (2017)

• ‘Victorian Electrotypes’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2012)

• ‘Sculpture Victorious’ at Tate Britain, London (2015)