2的补充20180831_Treasures of Time_SMG_Research Package_Chapter 3

Hong Kong Science Museum Treasures of Time ExhibitonIIIDESIGNThe sing-songs in the collections of the Palace Museum are world-renowned for their unique and elaborate designs. The tall, layered structures combine a diverse array of motifs a peacock looms above cherubs, balanced on the back of an elephant; a huge jewelled flower arrangement blossoms from a vase, which is mounted on the backs of four miniature lions; a turbaned Arabian leading a horse is housed with a tent which is surrounded by stars and flowers, palm trees, butterflies, dragons and a peacock. These subjects are realised in the most opulent of materials, from gold and silver to diamonds and rubies, velvet and pearls to enamel and agate.This seemingly random fusion of images can appear strange to modern eyes. Why do they look this way? Who created these curious designs? And how were these designs communicated to the vast network of people involved in making the sing-songs? Like the sing-songs themselves, the design process which informed their production is somewhat enigmatic. Almost no evidence from the period has been discovered, and therefore very little is known about the story behind the designs of these masterpieces. This chapter will present what is known about the design of the English sing-songs in the Palace Museum collection and will offer some new ideas in an attempt to shed new light on this intriguing gap in our knowledge.THE DESIGN CONTEXTIn order to understand the designs of the English sing-songs, it is vital that we explore the design trends of the context in which they were made. The dominant decorative movements in eighteenth-century Britain were Rococo and Chinoiserie and, from around 1750, Neoclassicism and Gothic Revival. These styles defined the aesthetic world of eighteenth-century England, shaping fine and decorative arts and design in architecture, gardens, fashion and the home.The term Rococo is derived from the French word rocailles, meaning rock-work, referencing the forms of rocks, broken shells and corals which were prevalent in Rococo designs. Originating in France, the Rococo style was light, flowing and heavily decorative. The excessive, overflowing character of sing-songs was typical of Rococo work. Motifs from nature such as flowers, fruits, leaves, shells, vines and animals were key features of the Rococo genre. Most sing-songs integrated these natural motifs, with the intricate details in gold found on most sing-songs usually taking forms from the natural world. Inspired by flora and fauna, Rococo artists favoured organic, asymmetrical decoration which was often carved by hand.Sing-song with Rococo-style decoration, made in England. Palace Museum. Collection number: 故182850. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection listThe stylised acanthus leaf was a very common theme which can be seen in most sing-song designs in some form, acting as frames, feet and decorative flourishes. These usually bore no resemblance to real acanthus leaves, but rather were organic structures which merged with flowing scrolls in the shape of the letters S and C. Rococo style frames with ancanthus leaves and natural motifs were also featured in the trade cards of many sing-song makers and producer-entrepreneurs.Sing-song with Rococo-style decoration including feet in the form of stylised ancanthus leaves, made in England. Palace Museum. Collection number: 故182740. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection listTrade card of James Cox and Edward Grace with Rococo-style frame featuring stylised ancanthus leaves and natural motifs. British Museum. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: British Museum /research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=358401001&objectId=3037679&partId=1 The swirling, organic motifs of Rococo were a fitting companion for the romantic exoticism of Chinoiserie. From the early sixteenth century, Chinese goods such as porcelain, silk and tea were imported to Europe from China. As trade grew, so did interest in all thing Eastern and by the seventeenth century China had become a subject of national fascination in Britain. Elements of Chinese, Japanese and even Indian culture intermingled in the imaginations of the British population, giving rise to a generic Oriental style known as Chinoiserie in furniture, metalwork, ceramics, interior furnishings, architecture, garden design, literature, music and philosophy.The Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens in London. Designed by William Chambers and completed in 1762. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: Historic England -.uk/SingleResult/Default.aspx?id=106517&t=Quick&cr=great+pagoda&io=False&l=allEarthenware punch-bowl made in England around 1790. Decorated in a Chinoiserie style, the outside of the bowl is decorated with Chinese-style landscapes. Inside the bowl there are painted busts of King George III of Great Britain and his wife and Queen Charlotte. Victoria and Albert Museum. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: V&A - http:/collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O282665/bowl-unknown/The Chinese Room at Claydon House in Norfolk. Designed by Luke Lightfoot in 1769,it is the most ornate surviving example of a Chinoiserie interior in Britain. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: V&A - https:/www.gettyimages.co.uk/license/532889738Lacking contact with China and any real understanding of Chinese culture or symbolism, designers took inspiration from objects imported from China, particularly porcelain. However imitation designs were copied and recopied, and soon became diluted, shaped by the mysterious Orient of the artists imagination rather than any authentic source of information. Complicating matters further, the Chinese export industry developed significantly over the course of the eighteenth century and export goods became tailored to European tastes, using exoticised, romanticised European ideas of the Orient to sell goods to the European market. These export designs were then imitated in Europe, further weakening any connection to authentic Chinese art and culture. From pagodas, dragons and exotic beasts to elegant ladies, pigtailed mandarins and turbaned Arabians, the fanciful decorative themes of Chinoiserie abound in English sing-song designs. Whether this was simply a continuation of a fashionable style used in products for the British market or a misguided attempt to appeal to Chinese consumers will be examined in detail later in this chapter.Gilt bronze sing-song in Chinoiserie style with five-tiered pagoda, made in England around 1780. Palace Museum. Collection reference: 故182646. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection listSing-song in Chinoiserie style with pagoda and crane figure, produced by James Cox in England. Palace Museum. Collection reference: 故182887. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection listGilt bronze sing-sing in the form of a pagoda with aturbaned figure playing bells, made in England around 1770.Palace Museum. Collection reference: 故182771. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection listFrom around 1750, the whimsical and elaborate styles of Rococo and Chinoiserie began to give way to a more formal, restrained aesthetic. A series of archaeological discoveries of ancient sites in Europe, including the Roman ruins of Pompeii, sparked interest in the ancient world across the Continent. This was complemented by the trend of the Grand Tour which saw younger members of the British elite setting out on cultured jaunts across Europe, including pilgrimages to the ancient architectural ruins and antiquities of Greece and Italy. In this climate of renewed interest in antiquity, a design movement inspired by classical Greece and Rome emerged. This style, known as Neoclassicism, permeated British art, design and architecture in the second half of the eighteenth century. Elegant Greek and Roman vases, costumes and figures and the geometric structures of classical temples and carriages evoked the grandeur of the ancient world, transforming the appearance of English sing-songs in the second half of the eighteenth century.Sing-song with Neo-classical decoration, made in England. Palace Museum. Collection reference: 故182881. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection list Mirror clock in Neo-classical style, made in Britian. Palace Museum. Collection reference:故182877. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection listIn contrast to the clean lines and reserved colours of Neoclassicism, the Gothic Revival looked to nature and the medieval period for inspiration. From church architecture to medieval script, historical costume to coats of arms, Gothic Revival designs were based on the style and imagery of the Gothic movement which first appeared in twelfth-century France. The Neoclassical and Gothic Revival design movements, both heavily influenced by the past, have been interpreted as a rejection of the urbanisation and industrialisation that was transforming European society in the period.Sing-song in Gothic Revival style, made in England. Palace Museum. Collection reference: 故183267. SOURCE FOR LICENSE ARRANGEMENT: image taken from exhibition collection list INTERPRETING SING-SONG DESIGNSThe Producer-Entrepreneur ViewAs discussed in Chapter II, James Cox opened a museum that showcased his wares in 1772 and in 1773, he was granted permission by Act of Parliament to dispose of his wares via lottery. In support of these ventures, Cox published a series of catalogues and inventories in which he described each piece on offer and, significantly, provided an overview of the philosophy which informed the designs of his works made for the Chinese market. These are a unique set of sources that enable us to understand the design of the English sing-songs in the Palace Museum collection from the perspective of the most prominent producer-entrepreneur in the eighteenth-century horological trade with China.Cox explains to readers that his sing-songs have been designed to appeal to the Chinese market however, he claims, they are enhanced by European skill and ingenuity:“The Asiatic Pomp has been, from all antiquity, in possession of a display of the most precious metals coarsely worked, and of gems, for the most part, ill set, and yet worse disposed, without taste, without proper effect, and without utility.The Proprietor of this Exhibition, sensible that there was something better might be done, conceived the plan of availing himself of the taste of the Orientalists for brilliancy, by adding to its design; a higher finishing of the workmanship; the inchantments of a mechanism, the more likely to captivate those people for their having to them the charm of novelty: the whole combined with the sweet harmony of sounds; and even with utility itself.” James Cox, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Several Superb and Magnificent Pieces of Mechanism and Jewellery:Exhibited in Mr. Coxs Museum, at Spring Gardens, Charing-Cross (London: 1772), p.iii.He exhibits a casual disregard for Chinese culture, and views European taste and workmanship as culturally superior. He declares that his works take inspiration from Chinese tastes while integrating European mechanisms and the traditions of European crafts. Positioning himself as a knowledgeable expert, he goes on to note the differences between European and “Asiatic” tastes:“A curious spectator may find here wherewith to satisfy himself, in considering the difference between the European and Asiatic tastes. This is even a preliminary distinction of which it is necessary not to lose sight. These pieces of work having been originally designed for the Orientalists; it is but natural that a certain conformity should have been retained to the barbaric cast of their taste and customs; a conformity which is so far from hurting the objects presented, that it rather gives them a poignant and instructive variety. He must be little acquainted with the nature of things, that would judge of these pieces, which were calculated for the Indian and Chinese markets, by the austere rules of our European Arts. Who does not know that our modern gardens owe their greatest beauties to nothing but the courage of adopting, from the Chinese, their just disdain of enslavement to the fetters of the tame laying out of compartments with all their sad and frigid symmetry? The wildness of the Oriental models have a right to please, not only in quality of exotic, but in their giving that kind of idea of infinity, which arises from an irregularity or disorder, that, even while, in some respects, it deviates from Nature, imitates her, at least, in her spirited licenses, and bold strokes.” Cox, Descriptive Catalogue, p. ivv.Cox expresses unsettling opinions, but it must be remembered that East/West, barbarian/civilised dichotomies were commonplace in Britain at the time and therefore were not unique to Cox. Inverse dichotomies were also prevalent in China in the period. These misconcpetions were a consequence of the lack of contact and understanding between the two nations in the eighteenth century. Cox appears complimentary in his observation that Chinese art and design is liberated from the constraints of European art, allowing for organic, asymmetrical forms to be used. He is keen to communicate that his sing-songs have been made specifically for “the Orientalists” and that they therefore differ to European goods. His words subtly convince the reader to approach his works with an expectation that they are exotic and strange, quite unlike anything they have seen before.James Coxs catalogues and inventories are the only known sources from the perspective of a producer-entrepreneur that feature information about the design of English sing-songs. We must be cautious not to attribute Coxs opinions and approach to the entire Britain-China sing-song trade. However, it can be concluded that Cox, the most prominent producer-entrepreneur, positioned his products as works which had been designed specifically for Chinese consumers. He claims a degree of understanding of Chinese “tastes” and craftsmanship and suggests that his pieces combine elements of Chinese design with European style and mechanical technology.The Historians ViewIt is clear that the designs for the English sing-songs in the Palace Museum collection were informed by the fashions of eighteenth-century design in the decorative arts. The styles and motifs were not unique to the sing-songs made for the Chinese market, but rather they were popular features of a whole range of things, from architecture and interior furnishings to clothing and jewellery. Many of the Chinese market sing-songs would have been quite at home in the dwellings of Britains bourgeoisie. This fact raises the question: were the English sing-songs in the Palace Museum collection designed specifically for the Chinese market, as Cox claimed his were, or were they in fact the same as the products made for the British domestic market?Catherine Pagani suggests that the apparent Chinese style of eighteenth-century English sing-songs was simply a reflection of the Chinoiserie style which was popular in Europe at the time. She argues that English producer-entrepreneurs and designers had no interest in understanding or appealing to the Chinese market and that sing-songs were only ever sent to China to boost sales at home:“By stating that their clocks were made for the Asian, not European market, such makers were simply taking advantage of the European popularity of Chinese style in the decorative arts, increasing the appeal of their work and, by extension, the demand for it by giving the impression that the designs were genuinely Chinese.” Catherine Pagani, Eastern Magnificence & European Ingenuity: Clocks of Late Imperial China (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2001), p.167.Chinese consumers, Pagani suggests, were interested in English sing-songs because they were novel objects in a European style. Producer-entrepreneurs manipulated the apparent interest of the Chinese market, presenting it to the British public as proof of their own understanding of Chinese design. James Cox is known for his showmanship and talent for marketing and self promotion. Could his pronouncement that his sing-songs were “originally designed for the Orientalists” Cox, Descriptive Catalogue, p.iv. be part of a clever scheme to imply an understanding of Chinese art and design in an attempt to sell more of his works in Britain?Historian of horology Roger Smith rejects this idea, pointing out that:“over time, designs of many sing-songs, and particularly the more opulent pieces, developed along distinctive lines which were not simply aspects of current European fashion but were a deliberate attempt to appeal to the tastes of Asian customers.”He suggests that in the early eighteenth century, designs for sing-songs were slightly more elaborate versions of works made for the European market. Tracing designs over the course of the century, Smith notes that from the 1760s, sing-song designs became more specialised in an attempt to appeal to the Chinese market. Recurring features such as pagodas, brilliant decoration with lavish use of jewels, gilding and enamels, botanical themes, pots of artificial flowers and exotic beasts such as elephants and rhinoceroses were intended to appeal specifically to Chinese consumers. Smith suggests that these styles and motifs were inspired by Chinoiserie but