An Ephemeral Display within an Ephemeral Museum : The East India Company Contribution to the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857

Abstract

This chapter seeks to reconstruct Saloon G at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857. Devoted primarily to objects from the Indian subcontinent, this section of the ground-breaking, blockbuster exhibition was drawn mostly from the holdings of the Honorable East India Company. India and Manchester were linked through their common interest in cotton; however, there was surprisingly little commentary at the time about the connections. The turmoil in India that began days after the opening Art Treasures Palace had a decided impact on the objects that were on view to the public. With little extant documentation about the specific works on view, this chapter confronts mid-Victorian attitudes to the applied arts, as well as objects produced in the “colonies.”1