To capture a vanishing era: the development of the Maze Collection of Chinese Junk Models, 1929–1948

Abstract

While history of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (CMCS) is most commonly linked to Sino-Western relations and the history of the treaty ports in Qing and Republican China, this article explores a less well-known facet of the CMCS, namely its contributions to the knowledge of the maritime history of China. The particular focus of this paper is the Maze Collection of Chinese Junk Models that was developed by the Inspector General of Customs, Sir Frederick Maze, and donated to the Science Museum in London in the 1930s. Through examining the origins of this model collection we are able to gain insights into how the study of Chinese ‘native’ shipping was conducted in the 1920s and 1930s. Moreover, by examining the origins of the Maze Collection of Chinese Junk Models we are able to make observations regarding Maze's motives for the creation of the collection; this paper argues that the collection of model junks was intended partly to provide an institutional legacy but was predominantly driven by personal ambitions. Through examining Maze's relationship with the Science Museum, this article also provides insights into the tensions between donor and curator as Maze sought to rescue and preserve Chinese maritime history.

Keywords:

• Frederick Maze
• junks
• China
• Chinese Maritime Customs Service
• Science Museum
• James Hornell
• maritime ethnography

Notes

1. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/3, Frederick Maze to Col. R. Mackintosh, 6 Feb. 1941.

2. For the most recent work to emerge on the CMCS, see Van de Ven, Breaking with the past; Aitchison, ‘Chinese Maritime Customs Service' and Brunero, Britain's imperial cornerstone. See also, Dayer, Finance and empire; Endicott, Diplomacy and enterprise; Tsai, ‘The Inspector General's last prize’; Bickers, ‘Revisiting the Chinese Maritime Customs Service' and Chang, Government, imperialism and nationalism in China.

3. Two examples of Worcester's works include Classification of the principal Chinese sea-going junks and Sail and sweep in China.

4. Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 26.

5. Brunero, Britain's imperial cornerstone, 10.

6. Van de Ven describes the IMCS as a ‘Foucauldian panopticon’ in its structure, reach and scope. See Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 65.

7. Taylor, ‘The bund’.

8. See the reprint of the 1930s guidebook, Lethbridge, All about Shanghai.

9. Lyons, China Maritime Customs, 39–43.

10. Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 76–82.

11. For example, the 1888 publication by the China Maritime Customs Service, Tea, special series, no. 11.

12. Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 87.

13. Morse, International relations of the Chinese Empire; Fairbank et al., H.B. Morse.

14. Maze, ‘Chinese “yuloh”’; ‘Chinese junks' and ‘Conservancy operations in China’.

15. Fan, British naturalists in Qing China, 8.

16. Two examples are Worcester, Junkman and Rasmussen, China trader.

17. Briggs, Hai Kwan, dustcover.

18. Brunero, Britain's imperial cornerstone, 25.

19. Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 95. See also Ladds, ‘Youthful, likely men’.

20. Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 95.

21. Brunero, Britain's imperial cornerstone, chap. 4.

22. Bickers, ‘Purloined letters’.

23. Van de Ven does not excuse Maze's ‘self-interest’ but the context of declining British interest in China perhaps provided impetus for Maze to use the CMCS for self-promotion. See Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 222.

24. There would be 12 models in total. A model was also given to President Roosevelt. Van de Ven, Breaking with the past, 228.

25. Sci. Mus., Registry 3699, part 3, Mackintosh in a Director's note, 27 July 1937. Maze visited Mackintosh and during this visit outlined his rationale for developing the collection.

26. Donnelly, Chinese junks.

27. Hornell, Indian boat designs and ‘Origin of the junk and sampan’.

28. Hornell, Water transport, vii.

29. Ibid., ix.

30. Worcester, Junkman, 11.

31. Brunero, Britain's imperial cornerstone, 109.

32. Banister, Coastwise lights of China.

33. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1, section1, Maze to Tisdall, 8 Nov. 1929 (Niuzhuang junk); section 2, Maze to A.H. Forbes, 8 Nov. 1929 (Fuzhou junk); Maze to A. Sadoine, 8 Nov. 1929 (Shantou fishing boat); Maze to T. Ebara, 8 Nov. 1929 (Ningbo–Shandong fishing junk).

34. NMM, MAZ/79/165/2, Maze to O.M. Green, 10 June 1936.

35. Sci. Mus., MS 20842/3 Maze to Laird Clowes, 2 Dec. 1936.

36. Brunero, Britain's imperial cornerstone, 25–6.

37. Worcester, Sail and sweep in China, xiv.

38. NMM, MAZ/79/165/2, Maze to Green, 10 June 1936.

39. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1, Maze to A. Forbes, 8 Nov. 1929.

40. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1, Fukumoto to Maze, 6 Dec. 1929.

41. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1, Maze to Osborne, 2 Dec. 1930.

42. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1 section 2, Maze to J. Anderson, Hong Kong, 2 May 1931.

43. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1 section 2, Anderson to Maze, Hong Kong, 11 May 1931.

44. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1 section 2, Maze to Anderson, 16 May 1931 and Maze to Osborne, Foochow, 18 May 1931.

45. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1, Maze to Boyd, 5 Mar. 1932.

46. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/1, Maze to Boyd, 30 Apr. 1932.

47. Bud, ‘History of science’, 47.

48. Anderson, ‘Maritime museums’.

49. Bud, ‘History of science’, 47–8.

50. Sci. Mus., Register File 3699, Frederick Maze, part 1, Maze to the Science Museum, 21 Aug. 1930; Minute Paper, Laird Clowes to Overton (Director), 8 Oct. 1930.

51. Sci. Mus., Registry 3699/1/1, Maze to Lyons, 22 May 1931.

52. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/3, Laird Clowes to Maze, 6 Jan. 1937.

53. Sci. Mus., Registry 3699/1/1, Maze to H.G. Lyons, Director of the Science Museum, 2 Dec. 1930.

54. Sci. Mus., Registry 3699/1/1, W.F. Tyler to Laird Clowes, 9 Oct. 1933, and enclosure of Maze to Tyler, 11 Sep. 1933.

55. ‘Ancient and picturesque sailing craft doomed to an early extinction' and ‘Models of Chinese sea and river junks presented to the Science Museum', The Illustrated London News, 23 June 1934: 1016–17. The explanation for this two-page illustrated spread is as follows ‘Sir Frederick Maze, K.B.E., Inspector General of Chinese Customs has recently presented to the Science Museum in South Kensington, a collection of large models of Chinese junks’.

56. Ibid.

57. Sci. Mus., Registry 3699, part 4.

58. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/3 section 6, letter re information on junks in the Yangtze. Junks and sampan information requested. Draft 20 Aug. 1940.

59. Sci. Mus., MS 2084/2/3 section 6, E.N. Ensor to Maze, 30 Sep. 1940.

60. These draft chapters are contained within the NMM Maze Collection.

61. NMM, MAZ/79/165/9, Worcester to Maze, 25 Jan. 1947.

62. Sci. Mus., MS2084/2/3 section 1 Nash to Maze, Amoy (Xiamen), 23 Mar. 1937. Nash writes that this was to be his sixth transfer since 1932.

63. Sci. Mus., MS2084/2/3 section 2, Maze to Dr Kong, 18 Feb. 1941.