Page 108 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

“Chinese Gordon” and the Royal Engineers Museum 93

Figure 6.3 Gilt Bronze Bell from the Summer Palace. Reproduced by permission of the
Royal Engineers Museum, Library & Archive.

object record has Gordon as an associated individual, it was Sergeant John Foster
RE who actually gifted it to the Corps in 1860. It is not certain if Foster was the
looter or not. 19
Most of the other objects were brought back by Richard Harrison. An example
is a set of bound engravings of military campaigns from China’s borders that includes
poems by the Qianlong emperor (r.1735–1796) covering the period of 1787–1788.
The eleven engraved plates are bound in maple wood and brass. The set is almost
certainly produced from a set of copper engravings now held in the British Museum. 20
This set shows that the copy held at the RE Museum is bound in the wrong order,
and it appears that one of the plates (9th) is missing—this one showing “The rebel
Lin Shuangwen is taken alive.” It is inscribed “presented to the officers Royal
Engineers by Lady Harrison, widow of the late General Sir Richard Harrison on
April 19th 1932.” Perhaps taking this item reflects his negative attitude towards
burning the libraries of the Summer Palace.
Other items taken by Harrison include several Buddhist objects. There is a series
of small bronze statues portraying Buddhist deities. 21 The object labels name each
deity (using the Sanskrit) and offer a limited explanation of the significance of each
one. One of the more unusual objects, certainly from a Western point of view is the
Buddhist libation cup. This is made from a human skull, probably belonging to an