Accessing the Collection of Chinese Ceramics Acquired by Captain Humphreys-Davies for the Auckland War Memorial Museum

Abstract

Rudimentary research has established that the first Chinese Arts Exhibition in New Zealand was held in 1932 at the Auckland Museum. This gave the visiting public their first opportunity to appreciate a collection of Chinese ceramics, ranging from simpler style bowls of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Song Dynasty (960-1279), to the more specular porcelain of the Ming (1368- 1644) and Qing (1644-1912) Dynasties. Another four displays of Chinese arts were held throughout the 1930s to great acclaim. They are now regarded as the origin of dissemination of knowledge about Chinese art in New Zealand. This dissertation examined the first Chinese art exhibitions in New Zealand in the 1930s, and the agency of significant collector Captain G. Humphreys-Davies in bringing those about. It also examined the nature of the collection, and explored the implications of this collecting of Chinese ceramics in the inter-war period in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It is evident that Humphreys-Davies was an advocate and promoter of culture and art who operated with passion and professionalism. The ceramic collection acquired by Captain Humphreys-Davies is one of the earliest and most comprehensive Chinese art collections in New Zealand. It provided a modern perspective into the history, art and culture of imperial China in the 1930s, brought new aesthetics and fresh ideas into interwar New Zealand culture, and affected the taste and creation of local art and literature. In addition to enriching and diversifying the collections of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, his strategic collection and exhibition of his collection of Chinese ceramics has also provided abundant material culture for anthropological and ethnological study by later generation.