Page 57 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

42 Nick Pearce
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hands, and this they presented to me in a very handsome manner.” The ewer, which
is solid gold and dated to 1852, has an inscription recording the presentation to Grant.
It was given to the Royal Scottish Museum, now the National Museums Scotland,
by Grant’s widow in 1884 (See McLoughlin, Chapter 7, for an account of the ewer’s
history, and also Figure 7.1). 26
Objects such as these are however rare. In most cases the closest in terms of a
secure provenance is that which links the original looter, owner, or donor to the 1860
campaign and as most of the looters and the purchasers at the subsequent Huangsi
Temple prize auction on the British side were officers, their presence at Beijing can
readily be established. For example, a group of cloisonné enamels was brought
back by a then Lieutenant (later Major-General) Frederick Edward Sotheby of the
Rifle Brigade. Sotheby (1837–1909) was with Grant’s Expeditionary force throughout
the campaign and was at the attack on the Dagu Forts and at Beijing. 27 His loot
came to the V&A in 1923, gifted by his sister and included a tripod incense-burner,
a vase and two pricket candlesticks, all part of an altar set. 28 Another example in the
museum is a plaque in green jade showing the head of a dragon. 29 This was part of
a bequest of jades made to the V&A in 1882 by Arthur Wells. The piece itself has
a paper label attached to it, which reads: “a fine specimen of green jade taken out of
the Summer Palace Pekin by Captain Fosbroke.” This probably refers to Thomas
Dudley Fosbroke (1839–1884), who served as an ensign in the 1st Battalion, 2nd
(The Queen’s Royal) Regiment of Foot (later the West Surrey Regiment), in the 1860
Campaign. 30 He was promoted to captain before resigning his commission in 1864,
at which time he probably sold the piece. There are numerous items like these in
museums throughout the United Kingdom, where at least a provenance of time and
place can be established. The evidence however is circumstantial when one considers
the opportunities available to the occupying army to acquire objects not only from
other imperial sites, but also non-imperial ones. Not only were items snatched, sold,
and resold, but there were other sites open to looting. In the words of a report in the
Illustrated London News: “A certain quantity of the booty has been purchased by
the Celestials themselves at Shanghai, Hong Kong and elsewhere . . .” a reference to
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the indigenous art market, which had operated for centuries. There were also objects
from Yuanmingyuan, which were already in circulation on the Beijing art market as
many commentators have recorded. David Rennie again, writing during the first years
of the British Legation at Beijing, could report that although many of the objects that
were being bought from curiosity dealers near Wumen were from private houses,

. . . the property of people in reduced circumstances. Some of the things
undoubtedly are from the Yuen-ming-yuen, owing to the stealthy way they are
brought into the Legation, and the comparatively low prices that are taken for
them. For instance, yesterday a massive white jade ornament was sold for twenty-
five dollars, for which, under ordinary circumstances, not less than from eighty
to a hundred dollars would have been taken. 32

There were objects labeled from the Summer Palace that were acquired immediately
post 1860, by those who, like Rennie, were part of the diplomatic and military mission
in Beijing from October 1860. This would have included looted items, but also pieces
already in circulation. Lord Elgin’s brother, Sir Frederick Bruce (1814–1867), took
no part in the Campaign, but arrived in Beijing immediately after to take up the post