Museum
Asia
The Asian collection comprises the largest percentage of the entire collection with about 3,300 items. Most of the objects come from Burma and China, with some pieces from Thailand. Denison also houses a Japanese netsuke collection, featuring about two hundred pieces mostly in ivory. The Asian collection also includes a small group of Vietnamese ceramics.
Burma (also known as Myanmar)
Currently, the collection of Burmese art at Denison University includes wood-carving; lacquerware; bronze, silver, and ivory objects; Buddha images; textiles; manuscripts; and works on paper. The dates of objects range from the Pyu period (seventh to ninth centuries) through the twentieth century. The textiles, Buddha images, and lacquerware comprise the most extensive portions of the collection, and altogether there are about 1,500 items. The representation of a broad expanse of periods and materials makes the Denison collection one of the most comprehensive in the United States.
The textiles, consisting of more than six hundred items, form the largest part of the collection, and include pieces from the Burman culture and from the multiple hill groups found in the mountain ranges that surround the central lowland. Given the fact that the missionaries were primarily located in the highlands of Burma, it is unsurprising that they should have amassed works of art from the regional locals. The Burman textiles number about two hundred and forty pieces, and consist of silks and cotton clothing. Of the hill groups, Karen textiles are best represented, followed by Kachin, Chin, Shan, and Lahu. Denison's collection also includes a few pieces from the Mon, Wa, Akha, and other groups. Denison's holdings are particularly rich in tunics and shoulder bags. The oldest Burmese textile is a temple hanging which dates to the eighteenth century, and a tapestry dates to the 1840s. Most of the other pieces date from the mid to late nineteenth century or the early to mid twentieth century.
The collection of Buddha images is likewise extensive with eighty-two items ranging in date from the ninth to the twentieth centuries. The collection is unusual in that it contains multiple items from the Shan and Mon groups, in addition to its Burman Buddha images. In general, there is a predominance of the crowned image type, which was very popular in Burma. The holdings are strongest in sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and includes a rare dated seventeenth century image. However, Denison is also fortunate to have a complete Pyu sandstone image dated from the seventh to ninth centuries, one of the earliest of its type, and a bronze walking Buddha from the Bagan period (eleventh to thirteenth century). The group of nineteenth century Buddha images is a comprehensive one, with standing and seated figures, as well as unusual representations of the Buddha shielded by Muchalinda Naga. Complementing the collection of Buddha images are nineteenth century standing and seated images of devotees and monks, as well as votive tablets. The latter range in date from the eleventh through the seventeenth centuries, and give evidence of popular worship and Buddhist religious practices.
The lacquer collection comprises household and ceremonial objects produced in several different techniques. The household items include bowls, cups, plates, betel boxes, and vases, and the ceremonial objects include hsun-ok (offering vessels), offering vessels and boxes, and manuscript chests. The main lacquer production techniques represented in the collection are shwezawa (gold leaf over black lacquer), yun (incised and decorated with multiple colors), and the method of molding lacquer to create images and decoration fully in the round. The lacquer items date from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.
The wood-carving collection is contains architectural and decorative pieces from monasteries; however, a few tourist items are also made out of wood. These include nearly life-size wooden dancing women, and approximately six inch high figurines of the hill group peoples in traditional dress. Of the architectural objects, Denison holds a carving that would have once been mounted over a doorway and panels with intricate floral carving and figural sculptures of ogres, the earth goddess, and dancing figures, which would have been used to adorn a plinth for a Buddha image. The wooden panels at Denison come from the interiors of monastic buildings. Many of these show the Jataka stories (tales of the Buddha's previous incarnations) or scenes from the life of the Buddha. Two particularly fine carvings of the Great Departure and the Vessantara Jataka were collected by the Reverend Sidney Hollingworth in 1927 from Kyaung Thit monastery in Samka (in the Shan States) in Burma. His records indicate that the sculptures were produced around 1900, and that the head monk was willing to sell the pieces because the monastery was falling into disrepair due to lack of funds. Hollingworth originally purchased four of the carvings, and two were given to Denison in 1979 by his daughter, Florence Wright.
The Burmese silver collection consists of a wide variety of items for use by the Burmese, as well as pieces made for tourist/missionary market and trophies garnered by missionaries in competitions (e.g. golf) in Burma. Pieces for Burmese use include jewelry, oblation bowls, daggers, betel nut boxes, and clothing accessories. Cigarette holders, napkin rings, teapots, and sugar and cream sets were popular with the missionaries, and are therefore also represented in the Denison collection. All the silver objects date from the mid to late nineteenth century or the early twentieth century. Other metal items in the collection include six bronze drums from the Karen culture in the highlands of Burma. These date to the nineteenth century.
The Denison collection also contains a number of manuscripts. Some Pali palm-leaf religious texts are held, along with a single kamawaza (a lacquer religious manuscript), and an illustrated parabaik (a paper manuscript) of the Temiya Jataka. These objects date to the nineteenth century. Other works on paper include watercolor paintings by the well-known twentieth century Burmese artist, M.T. Hla, and Denison also has one of the largest collections of prints produced by an Anglo-Burmese artist named E.G. MacColl. These latter pieces include etchings of the Burmese landscape and people going about daily tasks, as well as portraits of the various hill groups in traditional dress.
China
The Chinese collection mostly contains textiles, rubbings, and ceramics, totaling nearly 2,000 items.
The Chinese textiles date primarily from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They include blue and white folk embroideries in cotton, as well as a number of robes for the upper classes. Decorated with a large number of natural motifs, the silk clothing is representative of both men's and women's outfits, and includes coats, jackets, skirts, trousers, hats, and shoes.
The rubbings were made by Daniel S. Dye, a missionary to China during the first half of the twentieth century, and he used this material to write a book on Chinese lattice-work. The collection contains over four hundred rubbings of items from the Han, Tang, Song, and Qing Dynasties, as well as some pieces from the twentieth century. Bricks, inscriptions, calligraphy, and architectural decorative motifs of flora, figures, fauna, and geometric shapes form the basis of the collection. The most extensive set of rubbings derives from bricks of the Han Dynasty; the second most extensive part of the rubbing collection dates to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The Chinese ceramics in the Denison collection date to the Han, Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, with objects from the mid to late Qing period being the most numerous. Ceramic types include wucai (five colored wares), blue and white, famille rose (decoration with an emphasis upon the color red or pink), famille verte (decoration with an emphasis upon the color green), monochrome wares, celadons, and stonewares.
Other parts of the collection include household items, money, jewelry, paintings, sculptural items, furniture, cloisonne, and puppets. These date from the second century BCE through the twentieth century, with most of the objects dated to the nineteenth century.
Thailand
The third largest Asian collection at Denison comes from Thailand and comprises largely Buddha images and ceramics. The university holds several important Thai Buddha images that date from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, representing both the Sukhothai period (thirteenth to fourteenth centuries) and the transition to the Ayuddhya political phase in Thai history. These Buddhas are variously made of bronze, wood, and lacquer with gold leaf. The ceramics primarily date from the same period and are representative of the efflorescence of Thai stoneware production. They come from the main Thai kilns, particularly Sawankhalok, Si Satchanalai, Samkampaeng, and Sukhothai, and include celadons, white glazed wares, brown-glazed wares, and underglaze brown and white wares.
Vietnam and Japan
Denison also houses a Japanese netsuke collection, featuring about 200 mostly ivory pieces. The Asian collection further includes a small group of twentieth century Vietnamese ceramics.