Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Centre are organising a public lecture entitled ‘The Art of Stone and Fire – Ancient Chinese Porcelain’. The lecture will be delivered by Dr Qin Dashu, Professor of Archaeology at the School of Archaeology and Museology of the Peking University in Beijing, who has focused his studies and research on the archaeology of historical periods and porcelain. He has been in charge of some important archaeological excavations of porcelain kilns in China. As a visiting scholar, Professor Qin studied at Cairo University, Egypt, Smithsonian Institution, USA and the National University of Singapore. He conducted extensive research on Chinese exported ceramics and porcelain unearthed in Egypt, Kenya, Singapore, Indonesia and other countries. Professor Qin was also frequently invited to give talks and lectures in the UK, USA, Italy, Japan and Singapore among others.

Professor Qin has published many books and papers on ancient Chinese ceramics such as Guangtai Cizhou Kiln Site, Archeology on Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties and Guan and Ge Kiln Sites of Southern Song Dynasty in Chinese and English. In recent years, Professor Qin dedicated his energies on the research of ancient Chinese ceramics, exported ancient porcelain, tomb and funeral study of Song Dynasty as well as ritual objects in the style of the ancients in Song and Yuan Dynasties.

During his stay Professor Qin will visit the Grand Master’s Palace to inspect six Chinese jars that are found in the Palace’s Green Room. The jars, which were probably a diplomatic gift to one of the Grand Masters, are datable to the late 17th and early 18th century, thus placing them in the Kangxi and Qianlong periods. Finely decorated with vegetal motifs and blue-on-white designs, in some cases having central medallions with scenes, some of these vases are surmounted by lids crowned with what are known as ‘Foe Dogs’ which are Chinese guardian dogs.

Recently these vases were given the necessary conservation and restoration treatment at Heritage Malta’s Institute of Conservation and Management of Cultural Heritage at Bighi. Professor Qin will also visit the conservation laboratories to inspect three Chinese porcelain figures consisting of two adults and a child which also form part of the Palace’s collection. These statues have been cleaned and repaired. While so far little is known about their history and provenance, proof that they once formed part of the Palace’s interior ornamentation is provided by an early 19th century watercolour by Charles Frederick de Brocktorff of one of the rooms inside the Palace. It is thought that this set is actually incomplete and that these figures represent fictitious characters of an old Chinese legend called the ‘Royal Twins’.

The lecture will be delivered on Friday at 7pm, at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.