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All Outputs (65)

Recreating the Past: Guwan tu Handscrolls and Practices of Illusionism under Emperor Yongzheng (r. 1723–35) (2024)
Thesis
Ma, K. Recreating the Past: Guwan tu Handscrolls and Practices of Illusionism under Emperor Yongzheng (r. 1723–35). (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This thesis centres on two Yongzheng period (1723–35) handscrolls entitled Guwan tu 古玩圖 (Pictures of Ancient Playthings) housed in the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. By reexamining the scrolls not solely as pictorial representa... Read More about Recreating the Past: Guwan tu Handscrolls and Practices of Illusionism under Emperor Yongzheng (r. 1723–35).

Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Translation. A Conversation about James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room (2023)
Journal Article
Glazer, L., & Pierson, S. (2023). Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Translation. A Conversation about James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room. https://doi.org/10.1086/728448

The authors discuss Chinese ceramics and James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room as a case study in cultural translation and cosmopolitan aestheticism. The article, derived from a talk given by the authors at a conference on the global impact of Asian... Read More about Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Translation. A Conversation about James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room.

Visual Representations of the Korean Nation-State: 1880s-1910s (2023)
Thesis
Son, J. Visual Representations of the Korean Nation-State: 1880s-1910s. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This thesis investigates visual representations of the Korean nation-state from the 1880s to the 1910s and their impacts on state and nation-building of the period. After the opening of ports in 1897, Korea faced the task of reconciling the tradition... Read More about Visual Representations of the Korean Nation-State: 1880s-1910s.

The Power of Provenance. Dr Johnson’s Teapot and the Materialization of Fame (2022)
Journal Article
Pierson, S. (in press). The Power of Provenance. Dr Johnson’s Teapot and the Materialization of Fame. https://doi.org/10.48640/tf.2022.1.91511

In the British Museum collection, there is an eighteenth-century Chinese teapot that is named on its label ‘Dr Johnson’s teapot’. Evoking the famous lexicographer and tea drinker Samuel Johnson (1708-84), this teapot has been given a name that associ... Read More about The Power of Provenance. Dr Johnson’s Teapot and the Materialization of Fame.

Visual and Material Cultures of Food and Drink in China, 200 BCE - 1900 CE (2022)
Book
Pierson, S. (Ed.). (2022). Visual and Material Cultures of Food and Drink in China, 200 BCE - 1900 CE. Cambridge Scholars Publishing

This collection of essays examines aspects of the history of food and drink in China through an innovative, interdisciplinary lens. Arranged in chronological and thematic order, the chapters present the research of a diverse group of international sc... Read More about Visual and Material Cultures of Food and Drink in China, 200 BCE - 1900 CE.

Constructing Cantonese-ness(es): Relocations and Remediations of Chao Shao-an’s Paintings across the Asia-Pacific, c. 1950s- 2010s (2022)
Thesis
Wong, Y. H. Constructing Cantonese-ness(es): Relocations and Remediations of Chao Shao-an’s Paintings across the Asia-Pacific, c. 1950s- 2010s. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This thesis defines and deconstructs what the author calls the “Chao Shao-an Phenomenon”, and analyses how Chao’s paintings have been disseminated and represented by himself and his followers in different regions in the Asia-Pacific since the mid-20t... Read More about Constructing Cantonese-ness(es): Relocations and Remediations of Chao Shao-an’s Paintings across the Asia-Pacific, c. 1950s- 2010s.

The Origin, Development and Classification of Trompe l’oeil Porcelain in High Qing China (2022)
Thesis
Chen, C.-E. The Origin, Development and Classification of Trompe l’oeil Porcelain in High Qing China. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This thesis aims to present an alternate conception of Qing trompe l’oeil porcelain, which fools the eye, appearing real while being materially different from its referent model. Typically it is so skilful that it can be visually mistaken for the ori... Read More about The Origin, Development and Classification of Trompe l’oeil Porcelain in High Qing China.

The OCS council Makes (Art)History. The International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy, 1935-1936 and its Organisers: Percival David, George Eumorfopoulos, R. L. Hobson, Oscar Raphael (2021)
Book Chapter
Pierson, S. (2021). The OCS council Makes (Art)History. The International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy, 1935-1936 and its Organisers: Percival David, George Eumorfopoulos, R. L. Hobson, Oscar Raphael. In S. Wong, & S. Pierson (Eds.), Collectors, Curators and Connoisseurs: 100 Years of the Oriental Ceramic Society (20-29). Oriental Ceramic Society London

Collecting Chinese Art in Hong Kong from 1949 to 1997: Collectors, Museums and the Art Market (2021)
Thesis
Chan, I. Y. Y. Collecting Chinese Art in Hong Kong from 1949 to 1997: Collectors, Museums and the Art Market. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This thesis is a study of Chinese art collecting in Hong Kong during the second half of the 20th century. Through reconstructing the biographies of four representative collectors, who also held other roles as art dealer, adviser, scholar or museum do... Read More about Collecting Chinese Art in Hong Kong from 1949 to 1997: Collectors, Museums and the Art Market.

Collecting and Display in Public and Private: A Biography of the Ionides Collection of European Style Chinese Export Porcelain, 1920-1970 (2021)
Thesis
Glaister, H. Collecting and Display in Public and Private: A Biography of the Ionides Collection of European Style Chinese Export Porcelain, 1920-1970. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This thesis constructs a biography of the Ionides Collection of European style Chinese export porcelain; a collection previously unknown beyond specialist ceramic circles, but one whose objects have defined this sub-field of Chinese ceramics. Focusin... Read More about Collecting and Display in Public and Private: A Biography of the Ionides Collection of European Style Chinese Export Porcelain, 1920-1970.

British Collecting of Ceramics for Tea Gatherings from Meiji Japan: British Museum and Maidstone Museum Collections (2021)
Thesis
Fukunaga, A. British Collecting of Ceramics for Tea Gatherings from Meiji Japan: British Museum and Maidstone Museum Collections. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

Museum collections of Japanese ceramics in Britain include numerous utensils for whipped tea (matcha) and steeped tea (sencha) gatherings along with diverse vessels for daily and special occasions collected from Meiji Japan. Who collected them and wh... Read More about British Collecting of Ceramics for Tea Gatherings from Meiji Japan: British Museum and Maidstone Museum Collections.

Meritorious Curating and the Renewal of Pagoda Museums in Myanmar (2020)
Thesis
Tan, H. Meritorious Curating and the Renewal of Pagoda Museums in Myanmar. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

Gifts have been accumulated, stored and displayed at sacred sites in Myanmar for millennia as they have elsewhere within the Buddhist world. This thesis is the first attempt to analyse the phenomenon known as the ‘pagoda museum’ that existed since at... Read More about Meritorious Curating and the Renewal of Pagoda Museums in Myanmar.

True or False? Defining the Fake in Chinese Porcelain (2019)
Journal Article
Pierson, S. (in press). True or False? Defining the Fake in Chinese Porcelain. Les Cahiers de Framespa, 31, https://doi.org/10.4000/framespa.6168

This article explores the category of ‘fake’ in Chinese porcelain. It begins by defining the fake in the context of Chinese art and considers how the fake might be a stylistic category as well as a concept with reference to Chinese ceramics. Fake por... Read More about True or False? Defining the Fake in Chinese Porcelain.

"True Beauty of Form and Chaste Embellishment": Summer Palace Loot and Chinese Porcelain Collecting in Nineteenth-century Britain (2018)
Book Chapter
Pierson, S. (2018). "True Beauty of Form and Chaste Embellishment": Summer Palace Loot and Chinese Porcelain Collecting in Nineteenth-century Britain. In L. Tythacott (Ed.), Collecting and Displaying China's "Summer Palace" in the West. The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France (72-86). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315113395-5

This chapter considers how the novelty of the Yuanmingyuan objects was received and conceived of by collectors shortly after the 1860 aggression. It explores how these new objects were incorporated into a developing canon of "Chinese" things, particu... Read More about "True Beauty of Form and Chaste Embellishment": Summer Palace Loot and Chinese Porcelain Collecting in Nineteenth-century Britain.