British Museum

 

Miss VL and me in front of the museum entrance.

The British Museum (大英博物館) is one of the largest public museum in the world. It was established in 1753 and it is the oldest museum in the world.

The museum collection began with its first bequest from the physician and scientist, Sir Hans Sloane. The collection has grown substantially over the years and the museum now holds approximately 7 million objects in the collections.

With so many items to maintain, you would think that the entrance fee would be really high. Here is a pleasant surprise. Entrance to the British Museum is FREE. There are special exhibitions that would costs you around 10 pounds. However, access to the general collection will cost you absolutely nothing.

You may wonder how the museum is funded. Well, it is funded by "a combination of grant-in-aid allocated by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and income secured through sponsorship and a range of commercial and fundraising activities." There are collection/donation boxes around the halls and visitors are encouraged to make a small contribution.

So, it has been around 2 weeks since my visit. What are my thoughts?

The museum is HUGE. Although not everything from the collection is on display, it can easily take you 3 whole days to see all the displayed items. Miss VL, SP and I were simply exhausted after our short visit.  We spent most of our time in the 15th-20th Century Britain and Europe gallery. There were some impressive glassware and jewelry. We had the opportunity to handle real objects from ancient time (let's say it's BC... my memory is also as bad as a goldfish these days), which was interesting. We also saw the famous collection of mummies in the gallery, which is a rather eerie exhibit. It is the first time I see Egyptian mummies, a whole room-full of it!

Short guided tours are offered on each section of the museum and it was interesting to  ‘hear’, instead of ‘read’, about the items in the exhibits.

If you have ever been to the Palace Museum of China (故宮博物院), they will tell you that treasures were plundered or unfairly acquired by and other imperial nations during and after the opium war in the 19th century. Whether this is true of not, over 1.64 million Chinese artifacts are now scattered in 47 museums around the world and the best places to see Chinese antiques are in overseas museums, such as the British Museum. Naturally, we were very eager to visit the Chinese gallery.

The gallery is much smaller than our expectation. It includes jades, bronzes, ceramics, prints and drawings and other decorative objects. There are around 2,000 objects on permanent display in the gallery.

We saw a number of Tang stoneware, which were glazed in the colours of the sancai (three-colour) palette of the Tang dynasty (AD 618-906). There were also a collection of Ding, Ru, Jun, Guan and Gefrom wares from the Song dynasty (produced on between AD 1086-1127). These items are all very simple and elegant. I find them quite beautiful, however, nothing out of the extraordinary. Apart from these, there were also a large collection of the porcelain.

The Chinese enjoyed a monopoly on the manufacturing of porcelain from the late sixth century until the early 19th century. Porcelain was so rare and expensive in Europe and it was nicknamed "white gold" at some point, which reflects its high price-tag. The "white gold" was given as diplomatic gifts and collected by monarchs and aristocrats who created rooms in their palaces specifically designed to display what were often immense collections. It reminds me of the Chinese Luncheon Room in Buckingham Palace, the Great Corridor or Long Gallery at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, the Chinese room at Russia's the Peterhof (or Petrodvorets) Palace and the Chinese room in Schloss Schönbrunn (Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna).

Blue and white wares were the mainstay of the European exports. They were made popular in in the 14th century. Items were occasionally commissioned and customise drawings are included on the porcelain items. One of the most interesting piece was a drawing on porcelain depicting the story behind The Cross of Jesus Christ. The Chinese worker must have been very confused at some stage since he/she drew Jesus as a woman! That was certainly one of the highlight of the guided tour!

We have seen only a small part of the museum as our visit was relatively short. I hope we can visit the museum again in the near future. If you are ever visiting London, I would recommend you to make a visit to the museum, it was really an eye-opener!

For more information:

British Museum
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

One suggestion at how some of the Oriental collection finds its way to the British Museum
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3190360.stm