The Collection of Sir Joseph Hotung: Exploring the Remarkable History of China’s Jade
OCS AGM and The Sir Joseph Hotung Memorial Lecture
Jade, so central to China and the Chinese, often seems mysterious, hard to identify and to understand. Sir Joseph Hotung’s collection illuminates its history with magnificent pieces dating from the Neolithic, c. 3000 BC down to the 18th century. From the moment a pair of delicate and translucent 18th century bowls attracted his attention, he was a passionate collector, sharing his fine collection with visitors and museums. Sir Joseph discovered and acquired some of the very earlies jades made near Shanghai, which tell us about the extraordinary origin of the China’s interest in jade, long before it was known and used by the great dynastic rulers.
Professor Rawson’s talk will look back at this unexpected history and chart the choice of jade for auspicious items and works of art though Sir Joseph’s exceptional collection and the latest excavated materials.
The OCS is grateful to the Sir Percival David Foundation for their support of this event.
Speaker
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Jessica RawsonDame Jessica Mary Rawson, DBE, FBA worked for over twenty years at the British Museum. She was responsible for the renovation of the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery of Oriental Antiquities, opened by the Queen, November 1992. She was also involved in the renovation of the gallery, opened by Her Majesty, the Queen, on November 8th 2017. At the Museum she organised the several inter-departmental exhibitions, including Chinese Ornament, the Lotus and the Dragon.
After moving to Oxford in 1994, where she was Warden of Merton College, 1994-2010, Professor Rawson organised further exhibitions in London at the British Museum and the Royal Academy: Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing and Mysteries of Ancient China; China: The Three Emperors 1662-1795; Treasures of Ancient Chinese, Bronze and Jades from Shanghai.
Professor Rawson was awarded the title Dame by Her Majesty, the Queen in 2002 for her contribution to work on China.
Seeing the need to expand the study of China in the UK, Professor Rawson bid for and gained a major ten-year Leverhulme Grant (2002-2012) to support the study of contemporary China, leading to the establishment of the Oxford China Centre. She held a five-year (2011-2016) Leverhulme Trust grant on China and Inner Asia, 1000-200 BC: Interactions that Changed China. For the academic year 2013-2014 Professor Rawson held the position of Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University. She was elected a member the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. In 2017 she was awarded the Charles Lang Freer Medal, by the Freer Gallery Smithsonian Institution. She was made and Honorary Professor at Peking University in 2019.
