A beautifully illustrated exploration of the impact of Chinese and
Japanese material culture on the historic houses and gardens of Britain
and Ireland.
The European passion for and reinterpretation of Chinese and Japanese
art and ornament has had a profound impact in the British Isles since
the seventeenth century, and nowhere is this more evident than in the
houses and gardens of the National Trust. Chinese and Japanese
influences on country-house décor and garden design began with luxury
imports from the Far East, carefully tailored to Western fantasies and
expectations. Domestic designers and artisans soon added their own
fanciful interpretations of 'oriental' art to the mix. Those imitative
styles and tastes have traditionally been known as chinoiserie and
japonisme, but they can also be seen as elements of the wider and still
very relevant phenomenon of orientalism, or the way the West sees the
East.
Illustrated with a wealth of new photography, this engaging survey of
orientalism in historic houses and gardens across England, Wales and
Northern Ireland demonstrates how elements of Chinese and Japanese
culture were both desired and misunderstood, treasured and dismembered,
idealised and caricatured. It shows the value of country houses as
repositories of rare surviving fragments of East-Asian cultures, as well
as material archives of evolving Western attitudes to those cultures.
Filled with extraordinary, hitherto little-researched objects and
environments, this book provides new insights and visual delights for
those interested in Chinese and Japanese art, orientalism and historic
country houses and gardens.
