Objects in Frames

Material exchanges between China and Europe have a long history in which complex culturally defined processes of object appropriation play a role.
Anna Grasskamp investigates display practices of the sixteenth and seventeenth century in China and Europe providing an in-depth analysis of the processes through which foreign artifacts and natural objects were framed in early modern collections. While the first two chapters focus on the appropriation of artifacts through the examples of porcelain vessels and scientific instruments in metal mounts, the book's later chapters analyze the staging of foreign nature in Renaissance and Ming collecting through the case of coral.