The Lives of Chinese Objects (eBook)

Louise Tythacott is the Pratapaditya Pal Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology of Asian Art at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), University of London. She has worked in the museum sector for over a decade, latterly as the Head of Ethnology at the National Museums Liverpool (1996–2003), where she curated the Asia section of the World Cultures Gallery, which opened in 2005.

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Research and Serendipity
Objects, Meanings, Biographies
Objects and the Museum

Chapter 1.  Sacred Beings in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties
Construction: Births, Iconographies and Consecrations
Location: the Island and the Temple
Reception: Pilgrims, Lay Worshippers and Monks

Chapter 2. Trophies of War, 1844-1852
China and the World Outside
Edie’s War: Disease, Death and the Deity of Compassion
Edie’s Objects: the Significance of Things
From Public to Private, Sacred to Profane            

Chapter 3. Articles of Industry: the Great Exhibition of 1851
Articles of Imperial Ideology
China’s Refusal
China at the Great Exhibition
Late Arrivals: Exhibiting Edie’s Collection
Pilgrimage and Ritual at the Temple of Industry
China at the Crystal Palace in Sydenham

Chapter 4. Curiosities, Antiquities, Art Treasure, Commodities: 1854-1867
In the Cabinet of Gems: Objects of Bram Hertz, 1854-1856
Art Treasure: May to October 1857
Commodities: Sotheby’s, 31 May 1854 and 24 February 1859
Objects of Joseph Mayer: Antiquities and Curiosities, 1856-1867

Chapter 5. Specimens of Ethnology and Race: Liverpool Museum, 1867-1929
From Private to Public
Objects in the Museum
At the Back of the Walker Art Gallery and in Gatty’s Catalogue:  1882
Objects of the ‘Mongolian’ Race: 1894-1929

Chapter 6. Objects of Art, Archaeology and Oriental Antiquity: Liverpool Museum, 1929-1996
Chinese Objects as ‘Art’
Objects in War and Store: ‘An Exhibition of Official Neglect’
Objects of Archaeology: 1940-1966
Objects of Antiquity: 1966-1996
Guanyin Rediscovered: Objects of Chinese Metalwork and Connoisseurship, 1970s-1990s    

Chapter 7. Objects of Curation and Conservation, 1996-2005
New Identities
Objects of Conservation
Objects of ‘Contact’ and ‘Encounter’

Chapter 8. Future Lives: Liverpool or China
Objects in Liverpool
Objects in China

Postscript: Confessions of a Former Curator

Bibliography
Index