“The credit of priority”: The Japanese Collection Loaned From the Netherlands to The Great Industrial Exhibition, Dublin, 1853

Abstract

The year 1853 marks a landmark in the history of Japanese art exhibitions within Britain and Ireland, being the year when the first clearly identified exhibition of Japanese items was displayed in an international exhibition in the British Isles. The Great Industrial Exhibition, Dublin, 1853, is of importance because the Japanese exhibition loaned from a Dutch collection illustrates the Dutch playing a significant role in the introduction of Japanese works of arts and industry into Britain and Ireland. This study explores the means by which the 1853 Japanese exhibition was assembled and questions why it was never given the “credit of priority” during the 1870s, at a time when discussions on this issue focused on the Japanese displays in the International Exhibition, London, 1862, and the Exposition Universelle, Paris 1867. In relation to these discussions, two texts from the 1870s, R. Alcock, Art and Art Industries in Japan1 and G. A. Audsley and J. L. Bowes, Keramic Art of Japan2 have been singled out for discussion.