FIFTY-SIX CHINESE HAT BOXES — and One Hat!
FIFTY-SIX CHINESE HAT BOXES — and One Hat!
Oct 22, 09 | Jul 4, 10
Summer Hat Boxes, China19th to 20th century
Leather and brass
Collection, Mingei International Museum
Gift of Theodore Cohen
Photography by Anthony Scoggins
An exhibition of fifty-six Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) hatboxes created to hold officials’ hats is on view in the gallery next to TRANSFORMED BY FIRE. Made of wood, lacquer, paper and leather, all are late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Mostly round in shape or many-sided, there is among them a great diversity of form — a marvelous example of variation on sameness. Accompanying the hatboxes is one summer hat. Theodore Cohen, designer of both TRANSFORMED BY FIRE and this exhibition, gathered the hatboxes over a number of years. He donated this unusual collection to the Museum in 2008. FIFTY-SIX CHINESE HATBOXES — and one hat! continues through March 21, 2010.
