George Salting (1835-1909) and the discovery of Islamic ceramics in 19th-century England

• Main Author: Isabelle Gadoin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès 2012-12-01
• Series: Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone
• Subjects: Burlington Fine Arts; Victoria and Albert Museum
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/4468

This paper gives a biographical and artistic presentation of George Salting, a British art collector who bequeathed the largest part of his collections to various London museums. Although Salting has now sunk into near oblivion, his life and collecting methods may be seen as representative of the tastes and practices of Victorian amateurs, and of their vision of the Orient. Indeed, around him can also be glimpsed the rather closed circles of amateurs and collectors of Oriental art. It is well-known that Salting’s first passion was Chinese porcelain; but this paper argues that through Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, Salting probably became acquainted with “Persian and Arab” pottery—to take up the phrase then in use—which then led him to form an exquisite collection of Islamic ceramics.