Selling archaeology and anthropology: early medieval artefacts at the Expositions universelles and the Wiener Weltausstellung, 1867–1900

Abstract

The archaeological and anthropological exhibits included in the four Expositions universelles held in Paris between 1867 and 1900 and the Wiener Weltausstellung in the Austro‐Hungarian capital in 1873, contributed to the commercialization of antiquarianism and granted international attention to the amateur practitioners of these emerging disciplines. Displays of archaeological artefacts and human remains from the migration period and the early Middle Ages, juxtaposed with more exotic ‘primitive’ art, permitted organizers to broaden the aesthetic sensibilities of fairgoers and promote the acquisition of native antiquities. Exhibiting private collections of early medieval objects likewise justified nineteenth‐century concepts of French and ‘pan‐Germanic’ identity by linking them to iconic artefacts and romanticizing the barbarity of this distant epoch.

The Thing about Replicas—Why Historic Replicas Matter

“…Outside the scholarship on Celtic Revival metalwork (Edelstein, 1992), recently reinvigorated by Kelly's detailed study of mid-nineteenth-century commercial facsimiles of Irish archaeological jewellery (Kelly, 2013a(Kelly, , 2013b, relatively little work has been undertaken to date. Exceptions are Effros's work on the creation and use of replicas of Merovingian material (Effros, 2005(Effros, , 2008(Effros, , 2012, notably their impact at the Vienna World Fair, and the burgeoning interest in plaster casts of early medieval sculpture from Britain and Ireland (Redknap & Lewis, 2007: 28-35;Ó Floinn, 2012;McCormick, 2010McCormick, , 2013Foster, 2013Foster, , 2015Foster et al, 2014). Such early medieval replicas circulated in Europe and further afield, and are a distinct aspect of the wider trade in plaster casts of sculpture, both in terms of the subject matter and the timescale for their production; starting in the 1830s, it took off more significantly in the 1850s, and peaked in the late 1890s and first decade of the twentieth century (Figure 7).…”

National Museums and Nation-Building in Europe 1750–2010

“…Making and selling reproductions of museum pieces offered an opportunity for business. A great many reproductions were made for commercial purposes (Rionnet 1996), such as the reproduction of medieval furniture from Cluny that was sold throughout nineteenth-century Paris (Effros 2008). New techniques and the rise of the art market resulted in a wide distribution of reproductions to the general public during the second half of the nineteenth century (Verhoogt 2007).…”

Exposições internacionais: uma abordagem historiográfica a partir da América Latina

“…In general, they investigate the ways in which utilitarian, ritual or decorative objects, from various places and epochs, were presented, interpreted and received at the exhibitions, which puts these works at the frontier between museology, anthropology, history and archaeology. To give examples of the diversity of studies in this field, it is possible to cite those which deal with the display and reception of medieval artefacts in the exhibitions held between 1867 and 1900 (Effros, 2008), of Scandinavian peasant utensils in Paris (1878) (DeGroff, 2012), of archaeological objects also in Paris (1867Paris ( , 1878Paris ( and 1889 (Müller-Scheessel, 2001), of art nouveau objects in Turin (1902) (O'Neill, 2007), of Japanese and Chinese artefacts in Vienna (1873), Seattle (1909) andSan Francisco (1915) (Baird, 2011(Baird, , 2014Lee, 2007;Markwyn, 2008) and of Russian decorative arts in Philadelphia (1876) and in Chicago (1893) (Kettering, 2007). These studies demonstrate how a selection of objects said to be "exotic," "primitive" or "popular," whether old or even innovatory, as well as the way they were exhibited, can reveal interesting traits in the society of the time.…”

“…Finally, from a more cultural aspect, but still concerned with uncovering barely visible sectors of society, Missal (2008) and Markwyn (2014) brought together texts and images relating to the construction of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition of 1915, with the aim of analyzing the meanings constructed by different groups, from the Asian workers directly involved in the construction of the canal to the inhabitants of San Francisco, on themes related to the show, such as technology, work and fatherland.…”