Unknown Transcultural Objects: Turned Ivory Works by the European Rose Engine Lathe in the Eighteenth-Century Qing Court

Abstract

This paper analyzes a group of rose engine lathe-turned ivory works from the original Qing court collection, which were previously unknown to museum curators and scholars. The transcultural messages carried by the lathe-turned ivory works and the role that lathe turning machinery in the Qing court played in artistic exchanges and in disseminating technical knowledge between eighteenth-century Europe and China are significant. The recent publication of the Imperial Household archives has made this research possible, and it has been the author’s privilege to work with the National Palace Museum’s digital archive of the collection and with colleagues in the Palace Museum, Beijing, to identify similar works in storage. The turned ivory works by European rose engine lathe in the eighteenth-century Qing court is an interesting and solid case study for the discussion of communication between the East and the West. This paper evaluates imperial archive documents, ivory art works made by Europ