Tales and legends project

Tales and legends is a project currently being undertaken to re-assess the museum’s collection of Chinese objects, exploring and revealing hidden stories, rich imagery and interesting tales that Chinese designs hold.

The museum’s oriental collection comprises of a variety of objects from bronze sculpture and textiles to lacquer, coins and over 300 items of Chinese porcelain. Many of these form the 1936 Hurdle bequest to the museum on permanent display in the China connection gallery.

Chinese art and design is immensely important to western design and continues to influence it today. In the 18th century, Chinese porcelain, lacquer and textiles were amongst the Chinese wares that were in huge demand in Europe. Trading boats – or ‘junks’ – were loaded with these wares (porcelain on the bottom as ballast) and sailed to Europe where the wealthy and fashionable would buy it.  

Many Chinese decorative symbols, such as pagodas, dragons and flowers were used in emerging European design, merged with other favourite styles such as rococo and neo-classicism. The mixture of styles with a Chinese theme became known as ‘chinoiserie’.

Porcelain manufacture and lacquer were techniques and materials not seen or used before in Europe. As these Chinese objects started to appear more and more in Europe, many tried to emulate these crafts. This sparked a huge race in the 18th century for factories to produce true ‘hard paste’ porcelain like the Chinese. It was in this period that factories such as Chelsea, Derby, Bow and Worcester made their names. William Cookworthy in Plymouth was the first to produce the sought after porcelain in England.

Why not visit our object insight page for the first of many insights into what we have been discovering.