Objects from other worlds

In the second half of the 19th Century many European museums hosted and displayed finds and artefacts coming from distant lands. Seeking ways to understand and interpret their own history and culture in a positivistic manner, they displayed manmade objects from different ages and continents.

 

These objects, of surprising shape, design and use are a marvellous source of inspiration for both art and industry. They were collected by a wide range of people, from travellers in charge of research and exploration, to diplomats, business people, traders, aristocrats and clergy.

 

The development of the ethnographic collection of the Civic Museum of Turin began in 1864 and by the 1870’s it already boasted a rare repertoire of artefacts from Oceania as well as significant works from Central America. Donations from Asia and Africa were subsequently added. Some of these works are on display in the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin and the rest are stored in the museum’s vaults.

 

In 1871 the Kingdom of Burma signed a friendship and trade agreement with the kingdom of Italy, the purpose of which was the development and modernisation of local Burmese industry. A significant number of Italians moved to Burma, many of whom were technicians, mechanics and engineers.

Bernardo Scala, chief mechanic at the Turin Armoury, established an arms factory with his younger brother in the capital Mandalay. After the United Kingdom occupied Burmese territory in 1886, Scala returned to Italy taking with him a significant collection of idols, weapons, cloth and other everyday items which he offered to the Civic Museum.

In the second half of the 18th-century, developments in transoceanic navigation brought America ever closer. Zaverio Calpini (Vanzone 1820-1905) set off from Val d’Ossola and reached Mexico City where he set up an importing company specialising in optical equipment and instruments for engineering and design. During his years in Mexico, Calpini also acted as the honorary Consul for Italy and gave support to the new migrants founding the Charitable Society in 1850.

 

Having sold his company in 1867, Calpini returned to Piedmont. He donated a rich collection of American fauna samples to the Museo Galletti di Domodossola and over 1500 artefacts were donated to the Civic Museum of Turin in 1876. Among the 799 objects identified as coming from that donation, many belong to pre-Columbian cultures and count undisputed works from Olmecan, Mayan and Mixteco-Aztecan art.

Giovanni Battista Donalisio was the Italianconsul in Panama in thesecond half of the 19th century.Interested in the pre-Spanishcultures of the Central Americanisthmus, he collected practical objects and precious ornaments from Panama,Costa Rica and Peru.

“Another very important donation was recently received by the Civic Museum from the honourable lawyer Ernesto Bertea, who is also a respected painter. Owner of a significant ethnographic collection which he himself assembled with great love and attention during his travels and comprised of many bows, arrows, catapults, mallets and clubs of varying value, threads and cloths, oars of all shapes finely carved with different designs; selected items generally from the remotest regions”. La Stampa 5/5 /1872.

 

Ernesto Berta (Pinerolo 1836-1904) travelled throughout Europe and visited the Universal Exhibitions in London and Paris but little is known of his intercontinental trips. The collection is made up of over 200 artefacts originating from Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, The Cook Islands and French Polynesia.