San Francisco Ceramic Circle
Illustrated lecture
"Chinese and Japanese Figures of the 17th and
18th Centuries"
by
William R. Sargent, Curator Asian Export Art, Peabody
Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
10.00 AM Sunday, 15th February 2009
Florence Gould Theater, Palace of the Legion of Honor
Lincoln Park, San Francisco
Enter from the museum main entrance.
Doors open from 9.30 AM
SFCC lectures are complimentary for
Museum visitors
About the talk:
In May 1966, Mrs. Copeland published an article in Antiques
magazine entitled "Oriental porcelain frivolities."
This was the first foray into the public eye of a remarkable private
collection of Chinese and Japanese ceramic figures that over nearly
four decades would grow into one of the largest and finest assemblages
of such wares known. The collection, begun modestly, became yet
another passion, along with her extraordinary American furniture
collection and her famous garden
Each piece she collected expresses the form, proportion, detailed
decoration and distinctive modeling that characterizes the work
of a master potter. Spanning three centuries, from the reign
of Kangxi (1662-1722) to Daoguang (1821-1850), the collection
includes engaging figures of dogs, elephants, deer and birds,
as well as human forms representing both Chinese and Europeans,
as individual figures and in grouped scenes. Soup tureens
represent ducks, quail, rooster, elephant, crab, and boar's head.
Mrs. Copeland realized that recreating an assemblage of this nature
would probably not be possible and that keeping the collection
intact at a major institution was the best way to ensure its accessibility
to the public. In 1990 the collection was published by the
Peabody Essex Museum with 135 entries. In 2001 the collection,
then numbering over 200 pieces, came to the Peabody Essex Museum
as a bequest and can now be seen in its permanent galleries.
This talk by William R. Sargent, curator of Asian Export Art,
and author of the catalog of the collection, will cover issues
of historic documentation, early domestic wares collected in the
West, provocative parallels, genre subjects in the Chinese taste,
European figures, and the multitude of animal figures both decorative
and functional. While these figures were generally made
for export, their production in China and Japan imbued them with
layers of meaning unknown to the West the talk will explore
the deeper meanings behind the otherwise "beguiling and amusing"
figures of the Copeland Collection. In addition, the museum
has collected Chinese figural ceramics since its founding in 1799,
and these will be discussed as well.
About the speaker: William R. Sargent, has been with
the Asian export art collection of the Peabody Essex Museum since
1978 and became curator in 1992. Founded in 1799 the Peabody
Essex Museum is the oldest continuously operating museum in the
USA and, with around 18,000 objects in the Asia export art
department, it has the most comprehensive collection of
its type in the world. He has spent over 30 years with the
museum researching and cataloging the collection and interpreting
it through special exhibitions, lectures and publications.
Next meeting:
Sunday, 8th March 2009. " Porcelain in the Royal Collection
at Rosenborg Castle " by Peter Kristiansen, Curator at the
Royal Danish Collections, Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, Denmark