Private collectors of Islamic art in late nineteenth-century London: the Persian ideal

Abstract

"This book examines British collectors of so-called "Persian art" (a broad umbrella term then covering a large portion of Islamic art) in the late nineteenth century, including ceramics, metalwork, carpets and textiles, and woodwork. Based on a foundational event, the very first exhibition of "Persian and Arab Art" held by a London Gentlemen's Club in 1885, this book follows one generation of men, retracing the subtle shades of difference between "amateurs," "connoisseurs," "experts," and "collectors," and exploring all the mechanisms of the construction of a collective fascination for the Orient. Isabelle Gadoin exhumes some of the first "scientific" analyses of Islamic objects and of the first private notebooks or exhibition catalogues, to provide an in-depth study of the way Westerners talked about Islamic objects, and began to define what would become Islamic Art History. All the while, Gadoin unravels the skein of Western prejudice, Romantic fancy, sincere admiration and ruthless appropriation, in art collecting, to write a new chapter of Orientalist history. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, history of collecting, colonialism and post-colonialism, and Orientalism"--

Contents

Victorian travellers to Iran : discoverers or plunderers? -- Setting down the bases of a new discipline : the first analyses of Islamic art -- The 1885 exhibition of "Persian and Arab art" -- A new sociology of collecting -- Islamic objects at home.