This month marks the New Chinese Year – and 2022 is the year of the tiger. To mark the event, we’re posting a Chinese Empress’s festive headdress (dianzi), Guangxu reign period (1875-1908) from the exhibition Imperial Chinese Robes from the… Continue reading
A particularly beautiful object from the Portuguese period in India is a Goa Stone and gold case with gold filigree and repoussé that has cast legs and finial, and was probably made in Goa, late 17th/early 18th century, in the collection… Continue reading
This Yokohama print emerged from the specific historical events initiated when a fleet commandeered by US Commodore Matthew C Perry first landed in Japan in 1853. Perry’s arrival marked the beginning of a period of mutual curiosity between two cultures,… Continue reading
Shadow Puppet from Indonesia As part of the exhibition Sir Stamford Raffles: Collecting in Southeast Asia 1811-1824 (19 September 2019 to 12 January 2020), at the British Museum, a number of objects, including Indonesian shadow puppets, relating to Indonesian theatre… Continue reading
September 2021 Chinese Snuff Bottle This Chinese snuff bottle was on show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) from 14 September 2019 to 7 June 2020 The function of these bottles was twofold: to contain snuff tobacco in a… Continue reading
Calligraphic Standard from India This calligraphic standard from India was seen in the exhibition Power and Protection, Islamic Art and the Supernatural shown at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from 20 October 2016 to 15 January 2017. Within Islamic societies,… Continue reading
Lacquer Offering Stand from Okinawa This lacquer offering stand from Okinawa comes from the Ruyuku Kingdom (1429–1879), which controlled an extensive maritime trade network and played a key role in the cultural and economic exchange between China and Japan at… Continue reading
Chinese Vase with ‘peach bloom’ glaze This elegant Chinese vase with ‘peach bloom’ glaze comes from the exhibition held at the Baur Museum in Geneva from 27 September 2018 to 3 February 2019. A Millenium of Monochromes from the… Continue reading
May 2021 The kendi, an Indonesian-Malay term derived from the Sanskrit kundika, a water-pouring vessel with a distinctive mammiform spout and bulbous body, was indigenous to the Southeast Asian archipelago. Some Thai kendis took zoomorphic forms. The hamsa, the mythical… Continue reading
Writing Box, Mughal India This writing box was exhibited in the exhibition Goa and The Great Mughal, shown at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon from June to September 2014. The box would have probably been a European commission during a… Continue reading