New gallery at British Museum
Bottle-shaped flask decorated with bird and flower design, AD 1723-1735, Jiangxi province, China. © The Trustees of the British Museum
An important new ceramics gallery showcasing the Sir Percival David Collection at the British Museum
The spanking new, purpose-built gallery, officially called the Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies, will showcase this fabulous collection of Chinese ceramics now on long-term loan to the British Museum. The collection was started in the 1920s when Sir Percival David (1892-1964) managed to pick up some bargains from the Imperial Household in Beijing as the Qing Empire began to implode. It was given to the University of London in 1950 and went on public display in 1952, but was only really known to scholars and students, and its relocation means that it will be much more accessible to the general public.
The collection consists of 1,700 ceramics dating from the 3rd to the 20th century and is considered one of the most important in the world. Highlights include a pair of Yuan Dynasty vases which are the earliest examples of precisely (1351) dated blue-and-white porcelain and a significant group of painted porcelain pieces made for the Qing Emperors. The top 200 pieces will be displayed on a single table in the centre of the gallery, with the remaining 1500 pieces arranged ‘in a library’ on shelves around the edge of the room – an arrangement echoing the Qing dynasty’s tradition of multi-shelved cabinets.
www.britishmuseum.org
