The use of seals for stamping objects is well known and very common here. Not only letters are safeguarded with a seal but they are affixed to private writings, poems, pictures, and many other things. Such seals are engraved with nothing but the name and the surname. Authors, however, do not limit themselves to a single seal but possess many of them, bearing their degrees and titles, and they are used indifferently at the beginning and end of their works. The result of this custom is that writers of the upper classes have their desks furnished with a cabinet filled with seals, engraved with their various titles and names, for the Chinese as a rule have more than one name by which they are addressed. These seals are not impressed in wax or any similar material, but are stamped in with a red coloring substance. As a rule, they are made of some more or less precious material, such as rare wood, marble, ivory, brass, crystal or red coral, or perhaps of some semiprecious stone. Many skilled workmen are engaged in making these seals and they are regarded as artists rather than as artisans, because the characters engraved upon the seals are very old forms, not in common use, and high esteem is always accorded to those who display any knowledge of antiquity.
Quite different from the art of making seals is that of making ink for writing. They prepare this by fashioning thin pads from the heavy residue of oil. The Chinese, perhaps more than any other people, are accustomed to pay close attention to elegance in the formation of their script, and writers who have gained proficiency in this art are held in high honor and esteem. So, too, those who prepare the ink for writing are usually classified as artists. The fluid ink is dipped from a thin marble disk or palette, which is moistened with a few drops of water and then rubbed with the ink pad. Thus the palette is stained and the ink is dipped from it with a small brush made from the fur of hares. The preparation of these palettes is also a common industry, and at times they are fashioned with great beauty from the more precious stones and sell for a high price. In general, implements used in the art of writing are likely to be highly ornate and also much prized, because they are used by men of rank, in an occupation which of its very nature lends dignity to those who are engaged in it.
One particular trade here is far more universal than elsewhere, namely, that of making fans. Ordinarily these fans are used to temper the breezes during the season of greater heat, and they are carried by every class and by both sexes. It would be considered a lack of taste to appear in public without a fan, even though the weather should prompt one to ward off breezes rather than to stir them up. Perhaps the reason for this particular custom is that fans are used more for ornamental display than for any necessity. There is a great variety of fashion in Chinese fans and in the material from which they are made. Ordinarily they consist of ribs of reed, wood, ivory, or ebony, covered with paper or perhaps with cotton and at times even with a sweet‐scented straw. Some are round, some oval, and some square. Those used by the upper classes are generally made of bright paper decorated with a design, beautifully traced in gold, and they are carried either spread out or folded up. Sometimes, too, these fans are inscribed with certain maxims or even with whole poems. The gift most frequently exchanged as a sign of friendship and esteem is a fan. We have at our house a box full of these gift fans which have been given to us by our friends as a mark of esteem and which we in turn give to others as a proof of friendship. It is easy to imagine the number of artisans everywhere employed in the manufacture of these fans. It has always seemed to me that the use of the fan among the Chinese is like our own use of gloves. Although, the chief purpose of each seems to be quite opposite, one being used to ward off heat and the other to protect against cold; yet, both alike seem to be employed much more frequently either as a matter of display or as a small gift token of friendship.
In the practice of the arts and the crafts we have mentioned, the Chinese are certainly different from all other people, but for the most part their practice of the other arts and sciences is quite the same as our own, despite the great distance that separates them from our civilization.
IA12 Jean‐Baptiste Tavernier (1605–89) On the Peacock Throne
The Peacock Throne was the pre‐eminent symbol of Mughal power in India. It was commissioned by Shah Jahan around 1635 and located in the Red Fort in the capital Delhi. It was used for audiences granted by the Mughal leader to visiting dignitaries. Historians have ascertained that expenditure on the throne exceeded that on the Taj Mahal. The present description of it is by Jean‐Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant in gems and jewellery in the service of Louis XIV who undertook no fewer than six journeys to the East during the mid‐seventeenth century. Other slightly variant descriptions exist, including one by a Mughal contemporary Abdul Hamid Lahori. No visual representation of the throne has been preserved. As their power declined over the following century, the Mughals were beset by a variety of enemies: the Hindu Maratha states, and not least the British, but in 1739 it was their defeat by the Persian emperor Nadir Shah which spelled the end for the Peacock Throne. It was taken back to Persia as spoils of war and subsequently lost in the political confusion of the mid‐eighteenth century, probably dismantled and its precious metals and gems put to other use. As witness the Spanish in South America (cf. IB3–6), conquerors tended not to value the material culture of those they conquered as cultural artefacts or art. Various replicas, or semi‐replicas, were made of the Peacock Throne. One, in Persia, became the very symbol of the Persian monarchy, another, in India itself, was lost during the First War of Independence (the ‘Mutiny’) in 1857, when the British looted the Red Fort. The seventeenth‐century original exists only in a few descriptions, of which Tavernier’s is the most extensive. The extracts are from Chapter 8 of the Second Book of Indian Travels, in the English translation of Tavernier’s French original (it was also translated into German, Dutch and Italian), published as The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier … through Turky into Persia and the East Indies, London 1678, pp. 122–3.
Of the preparations against the feast of the Great Mogul, when he is weighed solemnly every year. Of the richness of his thrones, and the magnificence of his court.
This great feast begins the fourth of November, and lasts five days. They usually weigh the king at the time of his birth; and if he weighs more than he did the year before, there is great rejoicing. When he is weighed he seats himself upon the richest of his thrones; and then all the grandees of the kingdom come to congratulate him and present him. The ladies of the court send him their presents also, as likewise do the governors of provinces, and others in great employments. The presents consist of Jewels, Tissues, Carpets and other Stuffs; besides Camels, Elephants, Horses, and indeed any thing that is rare and of value. ’Tis said he receives that day thirty millions of livres.
They begin to prepare for this feast the seventh of September, about two months before it begins. The first thing they do, is to cover the two great Courts overhead, from the middle of each Court to the Hall, which is upon three sides. The Pavilions that cover these two void places are of Purple Velvet, Embroider’d with Gold, and so weighty, that the Posts which sustain them are as big as the mast of a ship; some thirty, some forty foot high. There are thirty‐eight of these posts to uphold the Tent in the first Court; and those next the Hall, are plated with Gold as thick as a Ducket. The rest are plated with silver of the same thickness. The Cords are of Cotton of divers colours; some of them as big as a good cable. […]
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