CHINESE ART

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 152, 24 March 1937, Page 10

CHINESE ART

Exhibition For Wellington

SOME ANCIENT PIECES The overseas loan exhibition of Chinese art, arranged by the trustees of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum with the honorary curator, Captain G. Humphreys-Davies, will be opened at the Dominion Museum after Easter. It has been found impossible to get every piece displayed at it should be before the holidays, but this need not prevent the public inspecting the exhibits before the official opening. The exhibition includes examples of ancient Chinese art, dating back to the Shang-Yin dynasty, 1766 8.C., and working through the Ch’in, Han. Sni. T’ang, Sung, Yuan, Ming and up to the Cli'ing dynasties, which brought China to the nineteenth century. Thus the collection gives a fairly comprehensive survey of Chinese art throughout the ages, and is therefore of distinct educative value. Contributors to the collection include Queen Mary, whose Chinese room at Buckingham Palace was a rather wonderful creation, and at the same time a tribute to Chinese art and craftsmanship. Her contribution is numbered 139, an exquisitely-designed casket of dark green jade of the Ch’ien Lun period. 1736-95 A.D. This beautiful piece of work was exhibited at the Royal Academy last year. A seal carved in jade I Ming dynasty) is lent by Lady Patricia Ramsay, who also lent her wonderful light jade swan bearing a spray of pouches (emblem of longevity), and her noted "Celestial Lion” ("Dog of Buddha”), in brown jade. Among the other articles in this semi-precious stone, are a set of mortuary jades of the Ch’in dynasty. The collection includes domestic utensils and bronze weapons and ornaments of different periods, some precious earthenware porcelain and cloisonne (of the Ming dynasty). (Pictures on Page 9.)