Events

Peter Lam is the 2021 winner of  the R.C. Hills Gold Medal, the most prestigious award granted by the OCS, given to a lifelong scholar who has made a major contribution to the field of Asian art.

In his R.C. Hills lecture Peter Lam will discuss the monumental porcelain ewer (British Museum Acc no: 1936,1012.206), decorated with a finely modelled phoenix-head and a design of crisply carved, punched and combed flowers and leaves inspired by metalwork. This ewer was formerly in the collection of George Eumorfopoulos, a key founder of the OCS and is widely regarded as the finest example of the phoenix-headed vessel type extant so far, but its provenance and date are always debated. The time span proposed ranges from 9th to 11th Centuries, and provenances suggested include Liao territory in the North, Yonghe of Jiangxi, and Xicun of Guangdong. The last one was proposed by the present author in the early 1980’s. Four decades have since passed, it is about time to revisit the piece in view of new discoveries of similar ewers, shards with similar decorative techniques and new textual evidence from E-researches.

Japanese Ceramics in the Royal Collection by Rachel Peat, Assistant Curator of Non-European Works of Art at the Royal Collection Trust.

This lecture will the explore the rich and important Japanese ceramic holdings in the Royal Collection, setting them in the broader context of Anglo-Japanese courtly relations and the changing face of British royal furnishing.

From early export wares to rare diplomatic gifts, Japanese ceramics have long been displayed in British royal residences. Fashionable collectors like Mary II (1662–94), George IV (1762–1830) and Queen Mary (1867–1953) dramatically arranged pieces alongside Chinese specimens and European imitations. Many had arrived via Dutch East India Company ships; others were presented by shoguns or purchased by eager royal tourists. Such pieces were not merely admired, but often dramatically adapted in ways that reveal British perceptions of Japan and its art. Others were designed with European collectors in mind, indicating the connectedness of Japanese kilns from their earliest operation. Together, these examples chart 300 years of changing relations, tastes and techniques underpinning Japanese porcelain in Britain.

Rachel Peat is Assistant Curator of Non-European Works of Art at Royal Collection Trust, and editor of Japan: Courts and Culture (2020).

Japanese ceramics in this lecture feature in Japan: Courts and Culture, published May 2020. More details here: https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/publications/japan-courts-and-culture

Fragments of China: Destruction, Location and the Collecting of Chinese Architectural Remains in 19th century Britain.

Coffee houses in Istanbul were places of social gathering – conversations were had, backgammon and chess played, and books and poems read aloud. From here, coffee houses spread through Europe – opening in Venice, Paris, London and Vienna – but they never strayed far from the Istanbul model.

This talk will explore the rich legacy of Anatolian rugs in Transylvania and the unique historical circumstances under which they came to be preserved in this region. Followed by a reception from 6pm.

In this special lecture to coincide with the release of his new book Great State: China and the World, Timothy Brook examines China’s relationship with the world from the Yuan through to the present by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people navigating the spaces where China met and meets the world. Bureaucrats, horse traders, spiritual leaders, explorers, pirates, emperors, invaders, migrant workers, traitors, and visionaries: this is a history of China as no one has told it before.

Timothy Brook is professor of history at the University of British Columbia and the general editor of Harvard University Press’ History of Imperial China. He is the author of eight books on Chinese history, including Vermeer’s Hat and Mr Selden’s Map of China.

Shirley Mueller’s an internationally known collector of Chinese export porcelain, and a neuroscientist which, she discovered, had broader applications for collecting.

By Dr Yu-ping Luk The lecture considers the history and production of kingfisher feather jewellery and explores how it came to be collected in Europe.

With Ben Okri and introduced by Venetia Porter. In collaboration with Magic of Persia Foundation.

Lecture in Mandarin ‘Song Qingbai Ware Production and Society in Jingdezhen’ with May Huang, Director of Dongjiao Centre, Hingdezhen

Lecture in English ‘Song Qingbai Ware Production and Society in Jingdezhen’ with May Huang, Director of Dongjiao Centre, Hingdezhen

Lecture with Dr Malcolm McNeill on ‘Highlights from Christie’s Hong Kong Autumn Auctions of Fine Chinese Paintings’

The Annual Benjamin Zucker Lecture

Lars Tharp presents detailed close-ups of some of his favourite Chinese ceramics, pieces whose tell-tale clues – forever locked in clay – reveal the minds and methods of potters long gone.

This talk by Alexandra Green, Henry Ginsburg Curator for Southeast Asia, explores Sir Stamford Raffles’ collections of Hindu-Buddhist artefacts and drawings collected during his time as Lieutenant-Governor of the island of Java, now part of Indonesia.

The social and cultural history of Chinese wallpapers in a global context.

Exhibition co-curator Julia Tugwell, British Museum, gives a 45-minute illustrated introduction to the exhibition Inspired by the east: how the Islamic world influenced western art.

This talk explores the lives and work of a number of figures who dominated the world of the Chinese cartoon during the 1920s-1940s. This period saw the rise of the cartoon as a major part of Shanghai’s jazz-age, as well as its widespread use as a propaganda tool. The work of cartoonist Ding Cong is currently on display in Gallery 38.

Visualising the Silk Road: Integrating Commerce and Aesthetics in Colonial Java with Dr. Laurie Margot Ross