Page 71 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

56 Kate Hill
and yet that there is a stamp upon them of the nation who designed and executed
them. They are further remarkable for their size, as we have no European enamels
approaching to them in that respect . . .
Eastern nations . . . have attained to the greatest knowledge of the treatment
of colour, particularly in their designs for textile fabrics. Unable to draw correctly
. . . yet they appear to have an intuitive acquaintance with the principles of
colouring, and to apply them with a boldness and success to which European
nations cannot attain . . . If we go still further East, to a country now happily
on a better footing with us than it has ever been before, we see that although
the form and taste in art is grotesque, yet that there are signs of extensive former
knowledge of Ceramic Art, as also that of enamelling. 27

Despite his condescension, Wharncliffe expressed collectors’ fascination with Chinese
enamels, 28 and the design world’s enthusiasm for color in Asian art. His praise for
Chinese craftsmanship is also typical of reviews covering spoils in these venues.

The International Exhibition of 1862
The Chinese Court at the 1862 International Exhibition of the Industrial Arts and
Manu factures mirrored the politics of other “Oriental” displays in Victorian Britain.
“Summer Palace” spoils confirmed victory over the Xianfeng emperor (1831–1861),
reputedly a dissolute Eastern tyrant. The sensational “Skull of Confucius,” mounted in
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gold —and discussed by Pearce in the previous chapter—prompted one reviewer to
attack “the hideous monstrosities of Chinese art.” 30 There was also a throne screen 31
that Major General Charles George Gordon (1833–1885) had taken from the “Hall
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of Audience” and given to General Sir John Michel (1804–1886). Descrip tions of the
throne room in campaign memoirs might have encouraged political interpretations, 33
but reviewers found it “A handsomely carved screen of various woods mixed, and
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ornamented with lacquer,” “composed out of black and yellow wood, the top being
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curiously carved with grotesque yellow aquatic monsters. This enthusiasm is typical:
spoils overwhelmingly generated aesthetic rather than political responses from critics.
Remi Schmidt & Co. displayed carpets “from the Summer Palace.” 36 Two were
prob ably among exhibition inventory Remi later sold at Christie, Manson & Woods
(hereafter Christie’s): “A MAGNIFICENT CARPET, of silk velvet, embroidered all
over with funghoangs and other ornaments in gold lace and coloured silks—8 ⁄4 yds.
3
3
by 3 ⁄4 yds. From the Summer Palace,” and “A DITTO, of Imperial yellow, richly
embroidered with coloured silks—6 ⁄2 yds. by 3 yds.” 37 Were these carpets from the
1
Yuanmingyuan? Large, colorful textiles are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and appear
in eighteenth-century court paintings, such as Imperial Banquet in the Garden of Ten
Thousand Trees, Rehe, 38 and The Empress Surveying the Rites of Sericulture. 39 Qing
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emperors favored yellow carpets, seen in an image of the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735–
1796) viewing a wrestling match from Four Dinner Scenes Beyond the Great Wall, 41
and Portrait of Imperial Consort Hui Xian. 42 Imperial textiles often combine yellow/
gold with black or dark blue/green, creating the “bronze-like hue” admired by one
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reporter, as in the key fret border of a carpet in two well-known Qianlong portraits. 44
The textile with “funghoangs” (fenghuang) and flowers might be for an empress. The
fenghuang (translated as “phoenix” in English) often represented the female principle