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Article ID: CBB001421841

From Relic to Relic: A Brief History of the Skull of Confucius (2014)

Pearce, Nick (Author)

Journal of the History of Collections
Volume: 26
Pages: 207-222
Publication date: 2014
Language: English

DOI: 10.1093/jhc/fht032

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Bone and bones Artifacts Archaeology Exhibits Craniometry 19th century China Confucius

This article examines a cup looted during the Second China War of 1860, as it moved through the hands of different collectors and as it changed its identity and physical form. Identified as the `Skull of Confucius' when it was first exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, the cup, made from the calvaria of a human skull, was richly mounted in gold and jewels. Following its exhibition it quickly changed owners, but soon lost its identity with Confucius; eventually stripped of its mounts, it reverted to being merely a fragment of skull. As such it then became a craniological specimen, examined by those interested in its racial and cultural origins. Pieced together from a variety of sources, the skull-cup's collecting history provides an interesting example of the many ways in which objects can change materially as well as in meaning.

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