The power of taste: the dispersal of the Berkeley Smith collection of Chinese ceramics at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum (1921-1960)

Tythacott, Louise

Abstract

In 1921, Stanley Berkeley Smith (1878-1955), a British banker based in Karachi, offered his collection of around 800 Chinese ceramics on loan to Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum. Berkeley Smith had spent the previous 21years acquiring the objects in India - and a Chinese Porcelain Room was duly opened at the Museum in 1923. Tastes in Chinese ceramics, however, were changing. From the 1920s, Cheltenham’s curator invited London specialists to inspect Berkeley Smith’s ceramics. One influential dealer even recommended that some of the pieces were not ‘museum worthy’ and should be disposed of. So it was that between 1946 and 1960 almost 500 of Berkeley Smith’s ceramics were sold at auction in Cheltenham and London. This paper examines the relationship between Berkeley Smith and Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum from 1920s to 1950s, exploring how his collection became entangled within shifting landscapes of taste in Chinese art during this time.

Citation

Tythacott, L. (2016). The power of taste: the dispersal of the Berkeley Smith collection of Chinese ceramics at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum (1921-1960). Journal of the History of Collections, 28(2), 327-343. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhv033

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Oct 28, 2015
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 24, 2014
• Journal: Journal of the History of Collections
• Print ISSN: 0954-6650
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-8564
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 327-343
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhv033