[Tlc] WOCG June 2009 Announcement

Tue Jun 30 04:19:57 PDT 2009

June 28, 2009

Dear Members:

June 09 recital + Bbay Vita +Sullivans B&W cup 003--The June issue of the
National Geographic magazine has a great spread on the fabulous Belitung
ship wreck sunk around 826 CE off Sumatra, Indonesia.  Its cargo of some
60,000 Tang dynasty ceramic items was purchased by Singapore for over US$30
million.  The photographs of the wares that were excavated in late 1990s are
of a high standard.  The Belitung is the earliest known shipwreck on the
Maritime Silk Route that extended from the Southeast China coast through
Southeast Asia to the Middle East.  That trade continued for centuries with
silk, ceramics, tea and spices being important commodities. 

Beginning in the 17th century the Dutch and then the English East Asian
companies were the dominant traders between Asia and Europe, which explains
how this simple 17th century cup was found in a Sierra Leone harbor.  It is
a souvenir of the British colonial rule of that West African nation, where
it was acquired by Dan and Margaret Sullivan who were stationed at the
American Embassy in Freetown in the 1980s.  Such cups were imported in vast
amounts for the European drinkers of tea, coffee and chocolate.  

 --Synopsis of the May 2 session:  We visited the Reeves Collection at
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.  The some 4,000 pieces
in the Collection are largely 17th-19th century Chinese overglaze porcelains
made for American and European markets, often with family crests painted in
bright enamels.  The Collection includes examples decorated in
Canton/Guangzhou for George Washington’s Society of Cincinnati.

WLU Curator Ron Fuchs gave interesting background and told humorous
illustrative tales during our handling session.  The new WLU Japanese tea
room was active on that Saturday with the tea ceremony.  The good number of
members Ceramics 4 & 5 09 045who made the three-hour trip south were
rewarded with good weather, introduction to a lovely liberal arts campus and
an interesting presentation of a genre of Chinese porcelain – armorials –
that few members have in their collections, and are not in the Freer –
Sackler collection.  This Chinese porcelain cup and saucer is from the WLU
Collection.

--A new idea – “From Members’ Collections”:  Starting this autumn we want to
add to the WOCG’s monthly announcement examples of ceramics from members’
collections.   If interested, email me a jpeg image and a comment on the
piece, i.e., where it was collected, its attraction for you, some background
on the type of ware, etc.  If not imperial that’s okay.  We’d like to hear
what turned you on to acquire it.  I might add some additional details as
appropriate.  The aim is to have one piece in each WOCG announcement.  I’ll
be the decider on what pieces get published.

 --Two University of Sydney-based archaeologists working in Cambodia spoke
to a fine crowd at the Freer’s Meyer Auditorium on June 16.  Dr. Mitch
Henderson is working on a never-studied Angkorian industrial settlement
northeast of Angkor.  He noted that much of our basic understanding of the
Khmer Empire is the product of French School of the Far East (EFEO) savants.
They emphasized Khmer Empire art history and the sequences of architectural
styles.  Their work ended in 1975 when war and instability intervened.  Only
in the past ten years have serious archaeological studies have restarted
around Angkor, and increasingly further out from the capital of the Khmer
Empire.  A result is the emergence of revised views of the Khmer Empire.
For example, the establishment of the Khmer Empire may have happened perhaps
hundred years earlier than its traditional date of 802 CE.  

Some Cambodian and foreign archaeologists focus on the extensive road system
that extended across the Empire in all directions from Angkor, the capital.
What was the raison d’être for these Angkorian routes, which extended for
hundreds of kilometers?  Apparently an important motive was to facilitate
trade in ceramics, fish, rice, gold, copper, bronze and iron tools and
weapons and other products.  We now know that Cambodian kilns along these
Angkorian roads produced brown-glazed and other stonewares.   The very large
industrial town site (five kilometers on each side) that Dr. Henderson is
studying was apparently a major iron producing settlement.  It was the
terminus of a major highway.

 Dr. Dougald O’Reilly, head of Heritage Watch, presented a much darker
story.  Heritage Watch is an internationally recognized cultural
preservation NGO (non-governmental organization) that works to preserve
Cambodian antiquities and to end the destruction of its unique heritage.
There is a crisis in looting cultural sites, O’Reilly said.  Vast numbers of
looted antiquities are smuggled out.  This trade is not restricted to
impressive sculptural pieces but also artifacts such as glass and stone
beads, prehistoric tools and ceramics.  Thailand and Singapore are prime
markets for this loot.  Part of the non-profit Heritage Watch’s work is
educating rural Cambodians to stop rifling ancient sites.  This is not an
easy task in this poor country struggling to get on its feet after its
decades of trouble.  Plundering is a “huge” problem, as is the illegal
cutting of timber.  Interestingly, Dr. O’Reilly reported that farmers
respect ancient above ground stone structures like temples and rest houses.
But underground sites like cemeteries are ransacked indiscriminately.  

Heritage Watch has produced a “Red List” of Khmer Empire objects for customs
officials to use in efforts to stop the antiquities trade.  At the current
rate of destruction, underground sites will be gone within five-six years,
according to O’Reilly.  Heritage watch’s website is
<http://www.heritagewatchinternational.org/>
http://www.heritagewatchinternational.org/  

 --The official introduction of the on-line catalogue for the “Taking
Shape”exhibition of the Freer-Sackler Gallery took place on June 23.  This
is the first on-line catalogue produced by the Freer-Sackler.  It is
intended to be a reference tool for researchers and others interested in
Southeast Asian ceramics.  The event itself was a webinar (web seminar) live
broadcast to an audience of hundreds in the US, Asia and Europe.  Curator
Louise Cort described the array of material available in this catalogue.
David Rehfuss and George Williams, who contributed articles, explained their
contributions and all took questions.  The website is at
http://seasianceramics.asia.si.edu/.

            The next WOCG meeting will be in the autumn, September 30.
Have a cool summer.

Warm regards,

David Rehfuss

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