The famous Oxford University sponsors the Museum of art and archaeology in the new Ashmolean. This is a famous spot for some of the greatest artifacts ever placed together for view. Between the lower level of the ground of thematic galleries and a suite of the top floor of galleries are three levels. These levels are generally dedicated to the old world, the medieval world, and the early modern world. China has artifacts exhibited at all three of these levels. What the ancient artifacts seem to suggest for us is not very easy to notice when one starts to observe the displays. After all, these are important pieces from the ancient to pre-modern worlds that even Asian people alive today have little personal connection with. However, when a closer observation and careful examination must be carried out the implication of the collection is very thought provoking.
On the ground floor gallery of China artifacts are displayed up to 800 CE. It is a beautiful collection of bronzes, jades and early ceramic pieces. Sir Herbert and Lady Ingram presented this excellent collection to the museum in 1956. Their collection includes several thousand Chinese and Japanese works of art. The gallery itself is long and narrow. On the one hand, the line of cases, ordinary bronzes of the Shang period (ca. 1600-1100 BC). Western Zhou (circa 1100-771 BC), Eastern Zhou (770-250 BCE) and Han (206 BCE-220 CE) dynasty artifacts are part of the collection as well. On the other hand, is a display that documents the development of formal writing in the Middle Kingdom. It begins with the so-called "oracle bones." Then ends with well-defined Chinese calligraphy. In addition to the oracle bones and bronze pot, written by one character opposite the handle, is a small scroll which in red ink a scapula inherited shaped bone and the inscription. These pieces tell a great story of the development of art and writing in the ancient world of the East that is informative and revealing. It also shows that civilization developed to a high level in China.
The calligraphy at the bottom is signed by a person with the name "Dong zuobin" (1895-1963). It turns out that Dong is one of the primary excavators of Anyang was. He registers his own inscription to confirm that the scroll a gift to Dr. Homer Dubs on his departure from China in 1947. He left China with the aim of the Chair in Chinese at the University of Oxford. Writing display stays with Zhou bronze inscriptions. It is present with coins of Zhou and Han dynasty, clay sealing, roofing tiles and mirrors which carry different types of functional text.
The early China Gallery shows certainly drawing connections between the pieces on display and the stock market that they have inspired. It turns out, however, also how writing and artifacts from ancient China dynasties which have reverberated in previous directives. As an example, one can look at the bronze gui on a square pedestal base. This is a rare and excellent piece of mid-late Western Zhou bronze casting. It is also distinguished by his often published inscription, but also by its ownership history. The early China Gallery proceeds with a remarkable display of Tang (618-907 CE) sancai were linking back to the Central Asian and Indian Collections. This is also a theme developed on the next floor up in a gallery entitled "Asian Crossroads." This theme explores the connections, particularly through trade, between East and South-East Asia. It reached on the Indian Ocean to Africa, and even to the Mediterranean. If this theme has historical validity (which, according to the evidence seems), then maybe the ancient Eastern world was not so isolated as the modern observer today would think?
Furniture and tapestries, including Japanese and Chinese lacquer chairs, and a beautiful Coromandel screen be supplemented with smaller displays of ceramics. The ceramics come from Japan, China, Southeast Asia, England, France and Germany. However, the most direct example of trade between England and China in the Gallery is a middle of the 18th century porcelain plate with a simple edge of pink flowers around a picture of the port to the Oxford botanical gardens. This is another proof of the theme of "West Meets East" as a historic event. It rightly deserves to be considered with an open mind. The daring suggestion of the later ceramic pieces seems hard to avoid. Namely, the trade between the West and the East has already for a long time. How long it exactly is uncertain. It may be impossible to ever know with a precise accuracy. However, it may also be longer than we had previously thought!
Harlan Urwiler answering all questions of your Asian collectibles.
For more information, please feel free to visit my website at: http://www.myorientalgallery.com/.
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