Page 99 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

84 Stacey Pierson
18 Before the ceramics galleries were refurbished and redisplayed in 2009, the V&A ceramics
galleries featured a case with tiles and related objects labeled as coming from the Summer
Palace (Pierson, Collectors, Collections).
19 See Pearce, “Soldiers, Doctors”, chapter three.
20 Hevia, Loot’s Fate.
21 Captain J.H. Lawrence-Archer “Chinese Porcelain, particularly that of the Ta Ming
Dynasty.” Art Journal, New Series, vol. XIV (1875), 251.
22 Lawrence-Archer, Ibid.
23 Percival David was often described as possessing “imperial taste” and in doing so, emulating
the Qianlong emperor. See Stacey Pierson, “Collecting Imperial China: Sir Percival David
and His Legacy”, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 70 (2007a), 27–31.
24 Hill, “Collecting on Campaign”.
25 Lawrence-Archer, “Chinese Porcelain”, 252.
26 Robert Fortune A Residence Among the Chinese: inland, on the coast, and at sea. Being
a narrative of scenes and adventures during a third visit to China, from 1853 to 1856,
(London: John Murray,1857), 86.
27 Monochrome glazes on porcelain, as opposed to earthenware and stoneware, were made
in China from the Song dynasty onward (906–1279). For a good overview in English,
see Nigel Wood, Chinese Glazes (London: A & C Black, 1999).
28 Pierson, Collectors, Collections.
29 A.W. Franks, Catalogue of a Collection of Oriental Porcelain and Pottery, Lent and
Described by A.W. Franks (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode for HMSO 1876), class 1,
section b.
30 Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of Coloured Chinese Porcelain exhibited in 1896
(London: privately printed, 1896), viii.
31 Fortune, A Residence Among the Chinese, 83.
32 Anonymous, Art Journal excerpt “The Chinese Collection at the Crystal Palace”, in The
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science and Arts, New Series vol. 2 (August
1865): 255.
33 Pagani, “Objects and the Press”, 161; Ringmar, Liberal Barbarism, 82–83.
34 Lawrence-Archer, “Chinese Porcelain”, 252.
35 Anonymous Art Journal excerpt, “The Chinese Collection at the Crystal Palace”, 255.
36 Greg M. Thomas, “The Looting of Yuanming Yuan and the Translation of Chinese Art
in Europe.” Nineteenth—Century Art Worldwide 7, no. 2 (Autumn 2008): www.19thc-
artworldwide.org/index.php/autumn08/93; accessed August 24, 2015.
37 An early Chinese description of ceramic classifications can be found in Cao Zhao’s Ge
gu yao lun, fourteenth century; translated into English by Percival David and published
in 1970 as Chinese Connoisseurship.
38 Pierson, Collectors, Collections; Merrill, The Peacock Room; Gere, The House Beautiful.
39 Hill, “Collecting on Campaign”.
40 Pierson, Collectors, Collections.
41 Dunhuang is the location of a series of decorated cave temples located in the deserts of
Western China. It was “explored” by various European travellers who in some cases
purchased or plundered (depending on perspective) numerous texts, wall paintings and
sculptures which are now located in Paris, London, Delhi and Moscow, for the most
part. See the International Dunhuang Project for information: www.idp.bl.uk; accessed
August 24, 2015.
42 Hevia, English Lessons, 223. The “Porcelain Pagoda” was the name used in English for
the Bao’en Si 報恩 or 琉璃塔 in Nanjing. Large tiles, mostly not porcelain, were collected
by many individuals and institutions, including the British Museum where a number
are on view today. Because they date to the early Ming period, they were featured in the
recent exhibition Ming—50 Years that Changed China (2014) and in the catalogue of
the same name.
43 A.W. Franks, Catalogue of a Collection of Oriental Porcelain and Pottery, Lent and
Described by A. W. Franks, 2nd edition. (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode for HMSO),
63.