The Centennial Exhibition, the Philadelphia museum of art, and Hector Tyndale

Magazine Antiques, March, 2002 by Felice Fischer

Tyndale was also interested in the less showy wares, and purchased widely to form a representative collection of the entire range of Japanese ceramic techniques and regions. He acquired a number of pieces from the Tokyo-based Kiryu Kosho Kaisha (First Manufacturing and Trading Company), which exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition

One technique that impressed the judges was the use of cloisonne enamel on porcelain, a specialty of the Nagoya firm Shippo Kaisha, which Tyndale praised highly. Several pieces with cloisonne from the Tyndale bequest were made by the Kyoto decorator Kinkozan Sobei VI (1824-1884). Tyndale's collection also contains ceramics decorated with lacquer. Reflecting the scientific tenor of the times, the Reports and Awards also contains what was most likely the first detailed chemical analysis of Japanese ceramics published in the United States. It was written by the chemist Professor Henry Wurtz (1828-1910), with a supplementary note on its microscopic structure. (25)

a collection of ancient pottery and porcelain, earthen- and stonewares; bottles of coarse gray stone and earthenware, said to be about twelve hundred years old. The collection has been made with the object of illustrating the history of the art of pottery in Japan, and possesses much archaeological interest, though, in general, the objects are more curious than artistic. (24)

In all, several hundred ceramic objects came to the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the Tyndale bequest. The collection was originally even larger, for some pieces were apparently sold by the Tyndales to Henry T. Walters (1848-1931) of Baltimore, and perhaps other collectors. (26) Because Tyndale had such catholic tastes and intellectual curiosity almost every type of ware shown at the Centennial Exhibition is represented in his collection--from Seto and Owari porcelains to unglazed Banko teapots, from Satsuma and Kutani gilt-decorated wares to delicately enameled Kyoto sake pourers, from a seventeenth-century tea caddy attributed to Nonomura Ninsei (see P1. X) to the most up-to-date wares of Matsumoto Sahei (1851-1918). One has the sense that Tyndale was trying to preserve as many examples of Japanese wares as possible because he feared that their future was precarious. In his report he wrote of his concern, which was to be echoed by many a connoisseur of Japanese art after him.

It must be premised that the Oriental art in porcelain, even where the specimens are freshly made, is, in fact, ancient art. Whatever innovation has been introduced has proved disadvantageous, and just so much as the artists have adhered to the old paths success seems to wait upon them. This is, indeed, not encouraging but so true does it seem, that the Japanese, despite their wonderful desire for progress and their power of assimilating Western notions, are themselves aware that their art deteriorates when sought to be 'improved' by European influence.... Happily, the efforts made to do justice to their country's art, on the occasion of the present Exhibition, seem to have specially drawn the attention of native artists to the danger of abandoning the ancient traditions of their country. (27)