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An ovoid-shaped Chinese Ming period porcelain jar painted in rich blue around the sides with two five-clawed dragons among clouds and with rocks and waves below. Round the shoulder a stylised shou (long life character) seems to grow out of the lotus scrol
East Meets West

Extraordinary Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Royal Collection

JAMES ROBERTS (C. 1800-67)

The Pavilion Breakfast Room at Buckingham Palace

dated May 1850

RCIN 919918

Queen Victoria (1819–1901) rarely used the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, which George IV (1762–1830) had so lavishly decorated in the Chinese and Japanese style. On her first visit, in 1837, she remarked that it was 'a strange, odd, Chinese looking place, both outside and inside'. By 1850 she had transferred much of the Pavilion's contents to Buckingham Palace, where a new East Front had been created to accommodate her growing family. This watercolour shows the Pavilion Breakfast Room, now called the Chinese Dining Room. Four Chinese porcelain vases, a painted glass lily chandelier and a spectacular marble chimneypiece were taken from the Music Room at Brighton to furnish this room. Outside, in the Principal Corridor, stood the huge porcelain pagodas commissioned by George IV.


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