World EXPO in 1878

1878 Paris Expo
The third Paris World’s Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French 1878.
This exposition was on a far larger scale than any previously held anywhere in the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, in 1851 Under the title “ Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations” That was the first international exhibition of manufactured products.As such, it influenced the development of several aspects of society including art and design education,international trade and relations, and even tourism.
The “ Gallery of Machines” was an industrial showcase in 1878 Paris Expo, the exhibition of fine arts and new machinery was on a very large and comprehensive scale. On June 30, 1878, the completed head of the Statue of Liberty was showcased in the garden of the Trocadero Palace. Among the many inventions on display was Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Electric arc lighting had been installed all along the Avenue de I’Opera and the Place de I’Opera. Over 13 million people paid to attend the exposition, making it a financial success.

Ancient Hawkers & Professions in China

China is very much in the news. Businessmen, Financiers, busloads of tourists, media sweep through the country recording their impressions and all interested in China, will enjoy the clam of this period piece. It is a reminder of how China appeared through the eyes of travelers in a less hurried age, without benefit of camera, and with plenty of time for each new sight to register. The generation of English people who first enjoyed these pictures in the seventeen-nineties and early eighteen hundreds saw China as an exotic and faraway land, would give the West such power In comparison to Asia had only just begun at the time.

Free E-book sign as members

This book is designed to raise some interesting questions about walls. To suggest some new possibilities and to encourage you to look at your walls in a new way. You can approach your wall by paint, photo, oil painting, art prints, historical prints,mirror,etc. www.ArtDepot2u.com can give it to you.

Exhibition in Hong Kong

Title : Modern Metropolis: Material Culture of Shanghai and Hong Kong

Shanghai and Hong Kong have developed simultaneously and the pattern of development shared a lot of similarities. The stories of the two coastal cities began more than one hundred years ago. Magnificent architecture appeared along the coast and the building clusters later developed into the Bund in Shanghai and City of Victoria in Hong Kong. In the two cities, the foreign interacted with the local, the traditional merged with the modern, and the new fused with the old to form a unique cosmopolitan lifestyle. This exhibition sets out to illustrate how Shanghai and Hong Kong pioneered China's modernisation, as well as depict the two cities' open, innovative, diversified and commercial way of life through clothing, food, living environment, transportation and culture and entertainment. A collaborative effort between Hong Kong Museum of History and Shanghai History Museum, the exhibition will present some 240 sets of exhibits from Shanghai and Hong Kong, including the metal plaque marking the border of the Shanghai International Settlement, a rickshaw before 1949, a pictorial album with actress Lily Yuen's autograph, a signage for the old Shanghai Race Club, costumes from the early 20th Century, monthly calendars and artefacts of the four major department stores. Please join us in revisiting the cities' social pasts – a cosmopolitan way of life that is prosperous, colourful and in touch with world trends.


Date : 29 April - 17 August 2009 (Closed on Tuesdays)

Address :
100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong (next to the Hong Kong Science Museum)

Fee :
^General Opening Days：HK$10
30% discount for group of 20 or more：HK$7 each
50% discount for full-time students / senior citizens /people with disabilities：HK$5 each
^On Wednesdays：Free
^Free Admission for holders of Museum Pass and Weekly Pass

Get more details : The Hong Kong Museum of History

Great Temple of Macua 1843

Façade of the Great Temple, Macao

By Thomas Allom 1843


So slight is Portuguese tenure or title at Macao, that the Chinese maintain here, in neighbourship with this despised of race foreigners, one of the most remarkable, most venerated, and really graceful building in the empire, dedicated to the worship of Fo. Which all Chinese pray for.

The architecture is more intelligible as a design, more perfect in execution, and less Grotesque, than the majority of Buddhist temples, the situation on the water-side, Amidst forest-trees and natural rock, is inconceivable beautiful, and the mode in which the architects have availed themselves of all these accessories to grace and harmony is highly meritorious.

The Neang – mako, or Old Temple of the Lady, is situated half a mile from the city centre of Macao, the temple is not perceived until the visitor comes suddenly upon the steep rocky steps that descend to the spacious esplanade before it. The scene in front, composed of religious votaries, venders of various commodities, jugglers, Ballad singers, sailors, soldiers, mandarins, and mendicants, is common to all the Sea – ports of China. The merits of the building itself are of so peculiar and so Conspicuous a character, that they call for a more detailed description. It is not Grandeur or loftiness, that the Neang – mako owes its charms, but also to Multitudinous details, made out with a minuteness and accuracy that cannot be exceeded. There is not another example, most probably, in all this wide – extended empire, in which the many grotesque features of Chinese scenery are concentrated within so small a compass, buildings, rocks, trees growing from the very stone, would appear to justify the artificial combinations that are madein their gardening, and in their drawings.

Thomas Allom was an most talented English artist, topographical illustrator and architect, and was a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects ( RIBA ). He was part of the art movement of historian and had achieved a great mastership in drawing at the same time.

Thomas Allom was born in Lambeth, south London in 13 March 1804. In 1819, he was apprenticed to architect Francis Goodwin for whom he worked until 1826. He then studied at the Royal Academy School. He also worked with Sir. Charles Barry on numerous projects, including the House of Parliament.

Allom is chiefly known for his numerous topographical works, he was most prolific and successful as a topographical artist during the 1830s and 1840s.
From the 1820s onwards, he traveled extensively through the UK and mainland Europe. In 1834 he traveled as far as to East Asia Istanbul, Turkey, and produced hundreds of drawings of European architecture and cities.

In 1834 to 1843 China in the late Qing period, when the coastal ports of China opened to western traders, Allom illustrated from original and authentic sketches of artistes returned from China such as William Alexander or by remembered for numerous illustrations of China on steel engraved plated, published in London between 1843 and 1847 of the highest quality. The beauty of the steel engraving after his drawings is impressive. Allom’s love for details raises these works to historic documents of great value. His print works express a sense for picturesque effects, and the play with light and shadow make them look like theatrical scenarios.

Thomas Allom drawings on China Illustrations in 1845 was the only means of visual documentation of scenery and scenes of everyday life in China, such pictures are an invaluable source of information for the study of history of China as well as tangible evidence of the artistic achievements of the artist.

A heart disease made traveling impossible for Thomas Allom. During the 1860s his artistic and architectural creations became more and more rare. And finally in 1870 he retired. He died at the age of 68 in 21 August 1872 and was buried in the famous Kensal Green Cemetery in London.