Page 70 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

The Yuanmingyuan and Design Reform in Britain 55
the advancement of taste by showing what can be done in art manufacture, and
affording the skilled artisan and the public generally, an opportunity of inspecting,
comparing, and studying works of the highest class, produced at various periods, in
countries where taste and technical execution were carried nearest to perfection. 20

At Bristol, Asian porcelains sat with European ceramics, including Queen Victoria’s
Sèvres. Elsewhere was a display of Chinese and European enamels, explained in the
catalogue: “Of Eastern enamels, Sir Hope Grant’s case affords several important
illustrations. They belong to the division termed cloisonné, and lines of thin metal
work will be seen intersecting the enamel and forming boundaries between the colours
and the subjects.” 21 Both catalogues praised monochrome porcelains. Atkinson
directed readers to specimens from important collections, most importantly mono -
chrome porcelains:

a tea service of rare “Ruby China,” formerly belonging to Mr. Beckford; also to
a group of “Crackle Ware,” and a large citron-colour “Egg-shell” Vase. Along
the case is ranged a series of fine Oriental Vases. Special attention may be directed
to four in monochrome, one mounted in ormolu, foliated pattern in low relief,
celadon porcelain, was in the collection of Mr. Fortune; all supposed to be of
early date in Chinese manufacture. 22

Johnstone wrote that yellow and crimson wares were esteemed most by the Chinese
and attempted a glaze chronology, concluding: “Ancient porcelain is distinguished
for graceful form, and colouring sometimes rich and deep, sometimes of a delicacy
23
never equaled in European porcelain.” The impact of Chinese imperial monochromes
on Victorian pottery cannot be adequately explored here, but the flood of mono -
chrome wares from major potteries in the late nineteenth century was clearly a
response to such material. For a scholarly grounding, both men drew on Marryat’s
Pottery and Porcelain; 24 Johnstone borrowed from the Manchester Art Treasures
catalogue. 25 The 1861 exhibitions constitute a turning point in the presentation of
Chinese art in Britain and Yuanmingyuan spoils appear to have played a prominent
role. One reviewer at Edinburgh praised “the pictorial and decorative taste and
skill of the Chinese. The collection of Sir Hope Grant illustrates nearly the whole
circle of artistic decoration in the East.” 26

Provincial Exhibitions
During the 1860s, smaller industrial art exhibitions in manufacturing towns also
featured Yuanmingyuan material. Some were conversazione, or evening salons. These
shows were often held in art schools or working men’s halls and featured travelling
collections from the SKM in order to make art accessible outside large cities. Spoils
were art specimens in these venues, including the Sheffield School of Art conversazione
in 1862. In opening remarks, Lord Wharncliffe urged that producers study Asian
handicraft, such as:

. . . some very large and magnificent copper enamels captured at the Summer
Palace in Pekin, and brought to this country by my youngest brother, who was
on Lord Elgin’s staff . . . the forms are pleasing and graceful, the colouring bold,