Bone China Patrick Hall (2005)

BONE CHINA was created by the Tasmanian artist and cabinetmaker Patrick Hall in 2005. Fashioned from plywood, aluminium, glass and ceramics the piece was originally made for 'Different Readings', a State Library of Tasmania exhibition for which a number of local artists were asked to create works inspired by the Allport collection of fine art and furniture. Hall's cabinet was designed to sit opposite a nineteenth-century display case filled with bone china.

The manufacture of bone china was perfected by Josiah Spode in 1800. It subsequently became popular throughout the empire and was often placed in display cabinets. Spode's grandson (also named Josiah) migrated to Hobart where he became Superintendent of the Prison Barracks--one of the officers charged with disciplining transported convicts. In fact Spode was a close friend of the Allport's and was godfather of one of their children.

Patrick Hall's cabinet is designed to play on this link between classification, collecting, empire and bone china. At first glance it looks like a nineteenth-century specimen case, but closer inspection reveals, not bones but carved pottery fragments made from bone china recovered from Tasmanian beaches and rubbish dumps. There is a further reference here. One of the advantages of bone china was that it exploited a by-product of livestock production. The expansion of the British pastoral industry was made possible by enclosure (land clearances in Britain)--a process which has long been linked with nineteenth-century migration to Australia. In order to underscore their respectable credentials, many Australian settler families acquired bone china which they proudly displayed in cabinets like the one in the Allport Collection.

After the Different Readings Exhibition, Bone China was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia where it is currently on display. As the gallery website puts it, it was 'Inspired by the tradition of the domestic china cabinet' .

For more information see:

http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Transformations/Detail.cfm?IRN=142275