This book explores the relationship between collecting Chinese ceramics, interior design and display in Britain through the eyes of collectors, designers and tastemakers during the years leading to, during and following the Second World War.
The Ionides Collection of European style Chinese export porcelain forms the nucleus of this study – defined by its design hybridity – offering insights into the agency of Chinese porcelain in diverse contexts, from seventeenth-century Batavia to twentieth-century Britain, raising questions about notions of Chineseness, Britishness, and identity politics across time and space. Through the biographies of the collectors, this book highlights the role of collecting Chinese art objects, particularly porcelain, in the construction of individual and group identities. Social networks linking the Ionides to agents and dealers, auctioneers, and museum specialists bring into focus the dynamics of collecting during this period, the taste of the Ionides and their self-fashioning as collectors.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of art history, history of collections, interior design, Chinese studies, and material culture studies.
Author(s): Helen Glaister
Series: The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700–1950
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 182
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 Chinese Porcelain in European Style: Visuality, Connectivity, and Otherness
Origins: Refashioning and Repurposing Chinese Porcelain for Europe
Rebranding Chinese Porcelain: Armorial Wares and Special Commissions
Exclusivity and Connectivity: Chinese Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century Europe
European Style Porcelain at the Eighteenth-Century Chinese Court
Gendering Porcelain Consumption: Fact or Fiction?
Collecting European Style Chinese Porcelain: The British National Collections
The Ionides Collection of European Style Chinese Export Porcelain in the Public Sphere
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 2 Basil Ionides: Collecting, Interior Design, and Museums
The Ionides Family: Collectors, Patrons, and Benefactors
Basil Ionides: Architect and “Decorator”
Professional Recognition and Commercial Success: Claridge’s Restaurant (1926–1927)
“Modernism with a Chinese Flavour”: The Savoy Hotel and Theatre (1929)
Interior Design in Print: Writing and Publishing (1922–1936)
Colour Theory and Interior Decoration: Books by Basil Ionides
Modernism and Chinese Art: Aesthetic and Cultural Debates
The Bequest of “Eastern Ceramics with Armorial Decorations” at the V&A
Basil Ionides the Collector
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 3 Fashioning the Collector: Nellie Ionides and Chinese Porcelain
The Anglo-Jewish Elite and Art Collecting
“Knew What She Wanted and Got It!” Nellie Ionides’ Chinese Porcelain Collection
Social and Commercial Networks: Dealers, Agents, and Auctioneers
Public Engagement: Museums, Art Galleries, and Exhibitions
Nellie Ionides and the Chinese Art World
Art, Identity, and Jewishness
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 4 Chinese Art and the English Country House: Elite Fashion, Taste, and Display
The Historiography of Chinoiserie
The Neo-Georgian Revival: Chinoiserie, the Chinese Room, and Chinese Porcelain
Collectible Object/Article of Display?
The Ionides at Buxted Park: Restoration and “Decoration” Before the War
Shared Patterns of Taste in Elite Society
Object as Artefact/Object as Ornament
Gilded Buddhas, Ancestor Portraits, and Tang Figurines: Chinese Art as Interior Design
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 5 The Impact of War: Collecting Chinese Art 1940–1950
Buxted Park during Wartime: Destruction and “Rehabilitation”
Cased Objects and Systematic Collecting
The Wartime Activities of the Ionides
The British Art Ecosystem: Auctioneers, Dealers, and Agents
Private Purchase: The Circulation of Chinese Art Objects in Elite Society
The Ionides and the Oriental Ceramic Society
Post-War Aspirations: Collections, Museums, and the National Trust
The Afterlife of the Ionides Collection
Notes
Bibliography
Conclusion
Index
