NANTUCKET, MA – The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) will host the exhibition Asian Treasures from the Billings Collection in the Whaling Museum, McCausland Gallery opening Memorial Day weekend through November 1.
Most pieces included in the show are being shown for the first time publicly, and the NHA is excited to be able to give islanders and visitors the opportunity to see a significant portion of the collection. The NHA’s changing galleries at the Whaling Museum are the only museum spaces on the island equipped to present pieces like these safely and securely.
The exhibition will feature paintings, textiles, bronzes, and jade items. However, ceramics will predominate, including some of the earliest known pieces of earthenware from 5,000 BCE and porcelain, which dates from the Qing Dynasty, the last Imperial Chinese Dynasty.The exhibit will also include a scholar’s table featuring items an ancient Chinese scholar might have used to contemplate and write, a Japanese Buddhist household shrine, and robes from the imperial court. While the Billings collection concentrates on China, additional pieces will appear from India, Burma, Tibet, Korea, and Japan.
Among the many objects that will captivate visitors is a pair of exquisite gold finials inlaid with rare kingfisher feathers, a selection of Chinese snuff bottles, Tibetan and tea ceremony objects, a large Butsudan shrine, a Jin Rickshaw, and a wonderfully articulated diorama of a Peking opera. A Jade body suit burial cleverly concealed will round out this exceptional exhibition.
Special thanks to our lead corporate sponsor, William Raveis Real Estate, as well as Julie Jensen Bryan and Robert Bryan, Susan Blount and Richard Bard, Kaaren and Charles Hale, Franci Neely, and Melinda and Paul Sullivan for their generous support of this exhibition.
A new 350-page book with full-color images published concurrently with the exhibition and written by David Billings and Beverly Hall Billings, Passion and Pursuit: The Billings Collection, is also available at the Museum Shop.