Beauty and the East (From Living Northeast)

Beauty and the East

12:47pm Tuesday 17th August 2010 in

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Fifty years ago, the Oriental Museum in Durham opened to help language students understand different cultures.

Today, this museum on a hillside houses collections of international importance enjoyed by students, schoolchildren and public alike. Steve Pratt visits.

CURATOR Craig Barclay talks about her as if she’s real. “She’s absolutely beautiful. She’s travelled pretty extensively and regularly to exhibitions. I think she’s one of the most beautiful objects to survive from the whole ancient Egyptian period,” he says, gazing at the little wooden servant girl in her exhibition case at the Oriental Museum in Durham.

She arouses interest whenever she leaves home because her features include tiny pieces of ivory (causing her to suffer the indignity of being inspected by customs officials enforcing export restrictions and legislation on the possession of ivory).

For the moment, the little servant girl is back home in her case, welcoming visitors to the museum in its 50th year. Originally planned as a resource for teaching and research for Durham University’s School of Oriental Studies, the museum now welcomes not just students, but thousands of visitors from all over the world every year.

Craig is a fascinating and informative guide as we wander around the Elvet Hill museum which, as the name implies, is built on a hillside – which has led to an unusual tiered layout for what is home to more than 23,000 objects from Egypt, the Near and Middle Est, China, Japan, India, the Himalayan region and stretching into South East Asia.

The story of the museum is linked to the story of the university which, explains Craig, has been interested in teaching oriental languages, particularly Biblical Hebrew and suchlike, since its foundation. “It’s really only in the post Second World war period that the university became more heavily involved in the teaching of oriental studies,” he says.

“Part of the reason for this was that the events of the war had flagged up the need to have a core of people trained in the language and cultures of the Middle and Near East. The result was a huge expansion in the teaching of oriental studies.”

Professor William Thacker, first director of the School of Oriental Studies, believed that as well as being taught the languages, students should be given an understanding of the cultures in which they were spoken.

“He took the view you couldn’t understand the language without understanding the culture that made it. And he was of the opinion that such teaching required cultural collections,” says Craig.

Taking a broad view of oriental studies, the school began collecting material to support the language teaching.

As the collections grew, temporary space was given over in the colleges, until the late 1950s when the momentum increased to create a permanent musuem.

In 1957, the Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Foundation donated £60,000 – the biggest grant received by the university up to that date – to build the first of three planned phrases. The Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, as it was then known, opened its doors on May 28, 1960.

The museum was sited in front of the school’s building, Elvet Hill House, and the original plan was to build two similar modules linked by walkways and Japanese gardens. Funding for further phrases didn’t materialise.

Admitting the public was something of an afterthought for what was essentially seen as a teaching museum, but has become increasingly important. Today, it’s very much a multi-functional institution with a collection of international importance which supports the university’s teaching, welcomes thousands of schoolchildren annually and is a tourist attraction too.

Over the years, the museum has changed with the addition of a mezzazine level to house the Marvels of China displays. There’s a constant refurbishment of showcases and reinterpretation of objects to ensure the treasures are seen at their best.

Recent additions have included an important portfolio of prints by contemporary Chinese printmakers and a series of North Vietnamese, Vietnam War period propaganda banners and flags celebrating military successes during the campaign for the reunification of Vietnam.

All of which makes the museum very unusual, says Craig. “We really don’t have any direct competition in the UK that does exactly what we do. The other thing to remember is that our collections really are quite outstanding.

We have two with ‘designated collection status’ – a collection of Egyptology and Chinese art and archaeology – so that places us in the premiere league of UK museums.”

Negotiations are currently being conducted with a major museum in China to send them an exhibition of Chinese material made for the western world and unavailable in China itself. Two years ago a hugely successful exhibition of Egyptology was sent to Japan.

“Our eyes are constantly on the rest of the world. We raise the profile of the university far afield, as well as that of Durham and the North-East in general,” he says.

Fifty key treasures were highlighted in the book being published to mark the 50th birthday. “Art workers, academics and other contributors see things that are familiar to us through fresh eyes. There are always new things to learn. One of the things about working in a museum is you never know it all,” he adds.

Much of the Egyptology collection came from the 4th Duke of Northumberland’s private collection, one of the finest of the 19th Century. “He essentially fell in love with Egypt. He visited as a young man and kept going back.

He got the collecting bug,” says Craig.

“He didn’t so much buy material in Egypt itself but from auction sales in England. But he had a very discerning eye and, as a senior member of the English aristocracy, a very deep pocket which allowed him to put together an absolutely fantastic collection.

“He was a fairly early collector, while the market was still young. He bought very, very well – particularly material with fine inscriptions because he was very interested in languages”.

Craig shows me a life-size bronze cat, originally created as a sarcophagus and which contained the remains of a mummified cat inside when discovered. “Which is slightly gruesome, but doesn’t stop it being beautiful.

There is another very famous cat, but I prefer ours. It may not be as glitzy, but it’s not restored.”

Another of his favourite pieces is a model of female polo player (“it’s just so animated, so full of life”) and a Chinese bed from the Qing Dynasty (the owner was a British trader who brought it back to the UK). Then there’s the astronomical clock, something of a rarity with the only comparable example in the Imperial Palance in Bejing.

WORK on the anniversary exhibition focused not just on the objects but the people and collectors behind them who have ranged from large corporate bodies to private individuals. Much of the Chinese ceramic collection is there thanks to the generosity of Malcolm MacDonald, son of Ramsay MacDonald and a politician diplomat in his own right. “In the post Second World War period he was Britain’s main man in East Asia.

He fell in love with Chinese pottery and collected very, very skilfully. He ultimately became Chancellor of Durham University and when the time came to find a home for his collection perhaps it was inevitable it would come to us.”

Only a fraction of the museum’s collections can be on show at any one time, although more and more is becoming available to the public on the internet.

Nothing, however, can beat getting close to the objects.

We pause by a cabinet housing a sword owned by a king of the headhunters in Malaysia. “Looks like it’s done quite a lot of business,” remarks Craig, surveying this lethal weapon.

■ Seek Knowledge, Even As Far As China runs until September 26. For more details visit durham.ac.uk/ oriental museum or phone 0191-334-5694 ■The Oriental Museum is open 10am-5pm Monday to Friday and noon-5pm at weekends and on bank holidays. Entry is £1.50 adults, 75p children (five-16) and over-60s, and free for children under five and students.