East Meets West
Extraordinary Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Royal Collection
Chinese Boat Model
c.1800RCIN 3230
The tiny details on this elaborate boat include an orchestra of seven players, tiny flower pots with green foliage and an official sitting at a table with a tea bowl. Boats like this could be seen on the river around the port of Canton (Guangzhou), and models in ivory had become popular in the West by the nineteenth century. George IV (1762–1830) displayed several such boats at his seaside home, the Royal Pavilion, Brighton.