Asian Textiles - Gallery

The Chinese collection at The Field Museum contains 23,500 archaeological, historical and ethnographic objects made between B.C.10,000 and A.D. 1980. The collection is strong in textiles (more than 3,000), rubbings of stone inscriptions (more than 5,000), and utilitarian and decorative objects of the 18th to 20th centuries (ca. 10,000).

Field Museum anthropologist Berthold Laufer acquired three-quarters of the collection in China between 1908 and 1923. Well-known and often studied subcollections include some 400 stone and glass snuff bottles, 230 toggles, 130 rhinoceros horn cups, 500 puppets, 1,000 coins, 1,000 jade carvings, 1,500 folk embroideries, 30 early cast iron objects, 500 items of Daoist and Buddhist sculpture, 400 Han Dynasty ceramics, 230 pewter objects, and 300 pieces of equipment for pets, mostly pigeons and crickets.

A selection of the astounding textiles from the collections of Berthold Laufer, Caroline Beiber, and other collectors can be viewed here.