Abstract
"AT no period in the history of the world has the attention of civilized nations been so fully directed towards China, its early history and modern position as at the present moment". These words, though true to-day, were in fact written exactly a century ago to preface the catalogue of London's first Chinese Exhibition. It was the enterprise of an American, named Nathan Dunn, who, during twelve years spent in China as a merchant, had collected the 1,341 exhibits, representing, so he claimed, "the Chinese world in miniature". More than fifty thousand persons visited his collection in a pavilion built for it near Hyde Park Corner. Presumably the exhibits were in due course shipped back to their owner in Philadelphia.
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YETTS, W. Value to the Study of Chinese Civilization of Collections and Museums in Britain. Nature 154, 454–456 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154454a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154454a0