“Very old Chinese bells, a large number of which were melted down”

Art, Trade, and Materiality in the Global Transformations of Japanese Bells

Authors

  • Madeleine Herren
https://doi.org/10.24437/globaleurope.i120.455

Keywords:

Global History, Switzerland 19th Century, Buddhist Bells, Bronze Trade

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th century, Buddhist bells from Japan began to arrive in Switzerland. The fact that these were objects listed in the so-called ethnographic collections is not surprising and the history of collecting has been a subject of postcolonial research. However, remarkably, the travel route of these bells, some of which weighed over a ton, could not be documented. Until now, the way how the bells were imported into Switzerland  as unknown, and the problem of their provenance unsolved. This article argues that a global history approach provides new insights in two respects: The consideration of materiality allows a new  nderstanding of the objects, while the activities of local collectors, seen from a micro-global point of view, reveal the local imprints of the global. Within this rationale, a history of individual bells in the possession of individual art lovers and museums translates into a history of scrap metal trade, allows to consider the disposal of disliked objects at their place of origin, and opens up a global framing of local history. Using global history as a concept, the historicity of the global gains visibility as we look at the intersection of materiality and the local involvement of global networks. Ultimately, as we follow the journey of the bells, reinterpreting scrap metal into art has formed a striking way in which local history assimilates the global.

Author Biography

Madeleine Herren

Madeleine Herren is professor of history and director of the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland. She has written multiple books, book chapters and journal articles on European and global history of the 19th and 20th centuries, internationalism and the history of international organizations, networks in historical perspective, historiography and intellectual history. Her publications include ‘Gender and international relations through the lens of the League of Nations’ in G. Sluga, C. Janes (eds.) Women, Diplomacy and International Politics since 1500 (2016), Transnational History, Theories, Methods, Sources, co-authored with M. Rüesch and C. Sibille (2012), and Internationale Organisationen seit 1865. Eine Globalgeschichte der internationalen Ordnung (2009). Her most recent publications include ‘Strength through Diversity? The Paradox of Extraterritoriality and the History of the Odd Ones Out’, Journal of the History of International Law 22 (2020), (https://doi.org/10.1163/15718050-12340153), and co-authored with Susanna Burghartz Building Paradise, a Basel Manor House and Its Residents in a Global Perspective (forthcoming 2021).

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Published

2021-07-23 — Updated on 2021-08-03