Collecting Chinese things from social status to public use: an early nineteenth-century Italian example

Between the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, as a consequence of the increasing intercourse between China and the West, private collections of Chinese arts and crafts by European residents in China are growing. Diplomats, officials, merchants take these often-impressive collections back home to embellish residences with prestigious and attractive decoration. In the 1820s and 1830s such collections are transformed by entrepreneurs into public exhibitions or itinerant museums of Chinese material culture, for educational and commercial purpose. After introducing English Dutch and American examples, the article focuses on the case of Italian globetrotter businessman Onorato Martucci. On his return to Rome after a multi-year residence in China, he brings with him a vast assortment of Chinese objects and set up a public exhibition to promote knowledge of the Chinese world and sell the collection. The article also reconstructs Martucci’s writings as a passionate popularizer of the reality of the Chinese empire.