Collection
Asian Export Art
PEM holds the largest and most comprehensive collection in the world of transcultural works by Asian artists who catered to diverse markets around the globe.
Ideas and aesthetics have always traveled with merchants, missionaries and workers and the objects they brought with them, often evolving in unexpected ways in new cultural contexts.
Beginning in the late 16th century, European merchants raced to thriving port cities in China, Japan, India and the Philippines to seek their fortunes in tea, textiles and other commodities. Asian artists, catering to diverse markets around the globe, adapted and combined design motifs, materials and techniques to create novel expressions of artistic creativity that were among the finest produced in the world. Now known as Asian export art, these transcultural objects — from translucent porcelains to lustrous lacquers to sumptuous fabrics — defy easy categorization.
PEM holds the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of these fascinating hybrid works. The collection is best known for its significant holdings of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, Chinese paintings and silver, Japanese lacquer and Indian furniture. The historic collections of the East India Marine Society and the Essex Institute include important works from China, Japan and India, a vestige of Salem’s intensive trade with Asian ports in the early 19th century. The collection grew gradually during the 19th century, but the largest single initiative occurred in 1984, when the China Trade Museum in Milton, Massachusetts, transferred 9,000 works of export art to the Peabody Museum of Salem. PEM’s international stature in this area, however, is due to concerted, strategic acquisitions over the last 30 years.
For centuries, these astonishing works fueled a complex global economy that continues to shape our world to this day. Export art objects demonstrate the beauty and ingenuity that can be created through blending artistic traditions, materials and technologies, but they also embody uncomfortable truths. Many were originally purchased with profits derived from the illegal trade in opium, which devastated millions of lives in India and China during the 1800s. We invite you to appreciate these complex works of art while acknowledging the unequal power structures embodied within them.
Highlights from this collection
ON VIEW
Charger with the Okeover family coat of arms, 1740 or 1743
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
ON VIEW
A complete set of Chinese wallpaper (detail), about 1800
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
ON VIEW
Tea Production in China, about 1800
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
ON VIEW
Tea packer and tea porter, about 1803
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
ON VIEW
Shuja-ud-Daula and His Sons, after 1797
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
ON VIEW
Portable shrine, about 1597
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
ON VIEW
Mounted crow cup, about 1610
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
ON VIEW
Figure of a bijin (beautiful woman), 1690–1710
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Charger with the Okeover family coat of arms, 1740 or 1743
Artists in Jingdezhen, China, Charger with the Okeover family coat of arms, 1740 or 1743. Porcelain. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 1987. E82042.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
A complete set of Chinese wallpaper (detail), about 1800
Artists in Guangzhou, China, A complete set of Chinese wallpaper (detail), about 1800. Originally installed in Strathallan Castle, Perthshire, Scotland, by James Drummond. Opaque watercolor on mulberry paper. Museum purchase in honor of William R. Sargent, made possible by the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund and an anonymous donor, 2006. AE86556.A-S.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Chair, 1760–70
Artists in Visakhapatnam, India, Chair, 1760–70. Ebony, inlaid ivory, cane, and lac. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 2001. AE85784.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Tea Production in China, about 1800
Artists in Guangzhou, China, Tea Production in China, about 1800. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 1993. M25794.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Tea packer and tea porter, about 1803
Artists in Guangzhou, China, Tea packer and tea porter, about 1803. Unfired clay, paint, wood, and human hair. Gift of Captain Richard Wheatland, 1803. E7100 and E7101. Photo by Dennis Helmar.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Teapot, about 1680
Artists in southern China, Teapot, about 1680. Silver. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 1989. E82766.AB.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Shuja-ud-Daula and His Sons, after 1797
Artists in Guangzhou, China, after a print by P. & E. Renault, 1797, after a painting by Tilly Kettle, 1772. Shuja-ud-Daula and His Sons, after 1797, Reverse painting on glass. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, and gift of Jeremy Ltd., London, 1996. AE85329.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Portable shrine, about 1597
Attributed to the School of Giovanni Niccolò and the Jesuit Seminary workshop, Kyushu, Japan, with lacquer case by artists in Japan, probably Kyushu, Portable shrine, about 1597. Oil on wood panel, in a lacquered wood case with mother-of-pearl inlay. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 2000. AE85752.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Christ child, 1550–1650
Artists in Goa, India, or Sri Lanka, Christ child, 1550–1650. Rock crystal with gold, rubies, and sapphires. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 1996. E85219.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Mounted crow cup, about 1610
Artists in Jingdezhen, China, and Peter Wiber (active 1603–1641, Germany), Mounted crow cup, about 1610. Porcelain with gilded-silver mounts. Anonymous gift, 2001. AE85461. Photo by Dennis Helmar.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Figure of a bijin (beautiful woman), 1690–1710
Artists in Arita, Japan, Figure of a bijin (beautiful woman), 1690–1710. Porcelain. Gift, the Copeland Collection, 2001. AE85873.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Ewer, 1570–1620
Artists in Gujarat, India, Ewer, 1570–1620. Wood, mother-of-pearl, and brass. Museum purchase, made possible by an anonymous donor, 2000. AE85718.
On view in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery of Asian Export Art.
Dressing table, about 1878
Artists in Nagasaki, Japan, Dressing table, about 1878. Lacquer, mother of pearl, glass, and copper. Given in memory of Katherine Tiffany Abbott. 2013.59.1A-D.
On view in Japanomania! Japanese Art Goes Global.
Child’s jacket, 1700s
Artists on the Coromandel Coast, India, Child’s jacket, 1700s. Cotton, linen, and silk, assembled in the Netherlands. Museum purchase, the Veldman-Eecen Collection, made possible by an anonymous donor. 2012.22.35.
Loans and acquisitions
PEM is committed to providing the broadest possible access to its collection through the loan of objects for educational and scholarly purposes. Learn how to request a loan from the museum’s collection.
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