A glass apart

Today, fine examples of glassware once made under the watchful eye of Stumpf, or by his Chinese proteges, have left their home at the Palace Museum and are on show a mere kilometer away in an ongoing exhibition, Crystal and Majestic, at Guardian Art Center in Beijing, which runs through to Sunday.

The exhibition shows more than 120 glass objects, dating from the 17th to 20th centuries, from the collection of Palace Museum, demonstrating the variety of colors, shapes and techniques of glassmaking in China and Europe, and in what ways these glittering objects enriched the living spaces of the imperial palace. It is the fifth collaboration between Guardian Art Center and the Palace Museum to showcase part of the latter's immense collection of imperial art.

According to Zhang Rong, a researcher at the Palace Museum with expertise in glassware, the museum has in its collection more than 4,000 glass objects, over 90 percent of which formerly ornamented the living space of the Qing rulers.

Also the exhibition's academic consultant, Zhang says "the exhibition shows three major sources of the glassware once housed at the Forbidden City: zaobanchu, or the imperial workshop (to which the glassworks affiliated), tributes to the royal family from outside the imperial palace and exports from abroad".