FURNITURE
0043 In May of 1861 the Derby Mercury and other papers reported that the 23rd company of Royal Engineers, returned from China, had marched into Chatham garrison and ‘Among the items of interest brought home’ were ‘the emperor’s throne, taken from the Summer Palace before it was burnt, and also a valuable bell from one of the joss-houses. The throne will be deposited in the officers’ new mess room’. (29 May 1861, Derby Mercury, p. 3.)
The throne was also included in the Royal Jubilee Exhibition at Liverpool in 1887, mounted to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession. One reviewer wrote that underneath a portrait of Charles George Gordon was:
‘a handsome throne, which was acquired by General Gordon at the Summer Palace at Pekin in 1870, and presented by him to the Engineers’ mess. The throne is a work of art, and the carving of flowers and dragons upon the panels above and below the yellow silk cushions is executed with an exquisite finish that is now seldom to be met with either in Japan or China.’ (31 May 1887, Liverpool Mercury, p. 5.)
Uploaded 26 February 2016.
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0042 For the Great Exhibition in London, General Sir John Michel (1804–86) loaned a throne screen from the Yuanmingyuan. (Anonymous, 1862. The International Exhibition of 1862. The illustrated catalogue of the industrial department. British division. London: Printed for Her Majesty’s Commissioners, vol. 3, p. 43.), which Major General Charles George Gordon (1833–85) had taken from the Main Audience Hall. (See: Maj.-Gen. Charles George Gordon (‘Chinese Gordon’): letters to his friend and fellow officer, Col. Charles Elwyn Harvey, R.E.; 1859-1883, Add MS 87369-87370. London: British Library, Western Manuscripts. Letter dated 25 Oct. 1860.)
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0001 In 1863, items from the estate of Earl Canning were sold through Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods. Among the offered lots was ’A cabinet of red lacquer, elaborately carved with dragons and other figures, on stand, from the Summer Palace, and a cabinet of inlaid woods, with six drawers and folding doors’. (18 March 1863, Morning Post, p. 3)
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0041 At the Dublin International Exhibition of 1865 appeared a: ‘Pair of enamelled tables, brought from the Emperor of China’s summer palace, Pekin, by J.M. Taylor, F.R.C.S.I., Royal Artillery’, and lent by his wife. (Dublin International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures, 1865. Under the Special Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen. Official Catalogue 2nd ed. Dublin, 1865, pp. 82–3.) A reviewer also remarked on: ‘a Chinese state bedstead, elaborately carved, which was looted at Pekin’. (13 April 1865, Morning Post, London, England p. 2.)
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0182 In 1879, the auctioneer Mr. A. Chancellor, of Richmond, Surrey, offered for sale the household goods of the late E. W. Wingrove, Twickenham. Among the ‘rare and costly Oriental Furniture’ was a ‘unique suite of Chinese carved furniture, taken from the Emperor’s Summer Palace at Pekin’. (1 March 1879, Surrey Comet, p. 1.)
Uploaded 26 February 2016.
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All material on this page, unless otherwise credited, was produced by Kate Hill, who asserts her authorship of the work. © Kate Hill, Yuanmingyuan Artefact Index, 2016.