DOI Heft:
No. 172 (July, 1907)
DOI Artikel:Sheldon-Williams, Inglis: Bits of old China
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20775#0144
Bits of Old China
the purity of native art
suffers accordingly.
A visit to a Pekin fac-
tory of cloisonne ware
reveals signs of the de-
structive tendency of
foreign influences and in-
novations. Abandoning old
designs the manufacturer,
unable to completely adjust
his art to new and ill-
assimilated ideas, produces
offensive combinations of
Western realism and Ori-
ental convention ; wrought
with the same perfection
of craftsmanship they are
depressing travesties of a
; . \ 1 time - honoured art, and
■■>%yl> ••"■'^RsIL «, * " Q ,jQE> «^gg«j mournful witnesses to an
overreaching commercial-
" in the bird market of the walled city, shanghai" ism.
by inglis sheldon-williams tfae fashionable
silk merchant flaunts before
and things out of sight are finished for love, or the offended eye twelve-foot pictures of red and
conscience's sake. white cows on green fields topped by square yards
Huge black characters, splashed with easy free- of rankest blue—exquisitely woven abominations,
dom on white and yellow walls, are, one supposes, Not till after much pressing will he unfold from
the equivalent of our commercial posters; their hidden corners those cherished treasures rescued
meaning is unintelligible and one rests content from the great loot, and stand before you an
with the effect of broadly rendered arabesques, artist false to his craft. At Shan-hai-kwan, on the
Except for these advertise-
ments, the unassuming,
almost humble, thorough-
ness of all things—suffi-
cient for the purpose, and
embellished as far as that
purpose will allow, and no
further—stands in monu-
mental contrast with the
cheap and perishable mate-
rials poured by the hundred
gross into the port from
the hold of every mer-
chantman from western
shores, and spreading
through the country that
deteriorating influence
upon the national taste
and traditions that has
already made its mark
in Japan; such things
must apparently come in
cc 1 "dull trade: chinese pedlar in the walled city, shanghai"
the wake of progress and by inglis sheldon-williams
the purity of native art
suffers accordingly.
A visit to a Pekin fac-
tory of cloisonne ware
reveals signs of the de-
structive tendency of
foreign influences and in-
novations. Abandoning old
designs the manufacturer,
unable to completely adjust
his art to new and ill-
assimilated ideas, produces
offensive combinations of
Western realism and Ori-
ental convention ; wrought
with the same perfection
of craftsmanship they are
depressing travesties of a
; . \ 1 time - honoured art, and
■■>%yl> ••"■'^RsIL «, * " Q ,jQE> «^gg«j mournful witnesses to an
overreaching commercial-
" in the bird market of the walled city, shanghai" ism.
by inglis sheldon-williams tfae fashionable
silk merchant flaunts before
and things out of sight are finished for love, or the offended eye twelve-foot pictures of red and
conscience's sake. white cows on green fields topped by square yards
Huge black characters, splashed with easy free- of rankest blue—exquisitely woven abominations,
dom on white and yellow walls, are, one supposes, Not till after much pressing will he unfold from
the equivalent of our commercial posters; their hidden corners those cherished treasures rescued
meaning is unintelligible and one rests content from the great loot, and stand before you an
with the effect of broadly rendered arabesques, artist false to his craft. At Shan-hai-kwan, on the
Except for these advertise-
ments, the unassuming,
almost humble, thorough-
ness of all things—suffi-
cient for the purpose, and
embellished as far as that
purpose will allow, and no
further—stands in monu-
mental contrast with the
cheap and perishable mate-
rials poured by the hundred
gross into the port from
the hold of every mer-
chantman from western
shores, and spreading
through the country that
deteriorating influence
upon the national taste
and traditions that has
already made its mark
in Japan; such things
must apparently come in
cc 1 "dull trade: chinese pedlar in the walled city, shanghai"
the wake of progress and by inglis sheldon-williams