The use of scientific methods to study works of art began at the Freer Gallery of Art in 1951 with the work of R. J. Gettens. While Mr. Gettens was active in many fields of research, his landmark publication was the volume of technical studies on the Freer Chinese bronzes, a collaborative effort by scientists, conservators, and art historians. These proceedings, and their companion symposium, commemorate that work and also present recent studies on ancient Chinese bronzes and Southeast and West Asian copper alloys.
This work is the fifth in a series of publications of Forbes symposia proceedings by Archetype Publications in association with the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Foreword
Acknowledgments
List of contributors
Introduction
Reflections on R.J. Gettens and the technical studies of Chinese bronzes
A chemist under a spell: Rutherford John Gettens’s early encounters with Chinese bronzes
Francesca G. Bewer
The making of volume 2 of the Freer Chinese bronze book
W.T. Chase
Theories and observations: still looking at the Freer bronzes
Robert Bagley
Chinese bronzes
Recent research on early bronze metallurgy in northwest China
Mei Jianjun, Xu Jianwei, Chen Kunlong, Shen Lu and Wang Hui
Recent discoveries concerning metallurgy in Bronze Age Yunnan
Jin Zhengyao, Li Gong, Wang Haigang, Tian Jianhua, Yan Lifeng and Jiang Zhilong
Some decorative techniques and corrosion on Chinese bronze mirrors in the Cotsen collection
David A. Scott
Technical studies of three gui vessels of the early Western Zhou period in the British Museum collection
Wang Quanyu
An enlightened journey: transitions in casting of Chinese Buddhist images
Donna Strahan
Southeast Asian bronzes
Looking east: the coming of tin bronze in the context of Bronze Age trans-Eurasian exchange—an overview
Vincent C. Pigott
The high-tin bronzes of Thailand
Ian Glover and Anna Bennett
A flux that binds? The Southeast Asian Lead Isotope Project
Thomas Oliver Pryce
Khmer bronze metallurgy during the Angkorian period (twelfth to thirteenth centuries): technical investigation of a new selected corpus of artifacts from the National Museum of Cambodia, Phnom Penh
Brice Vincent, David Bourgarit and Paul Jett
Casting of ancient drums in North Vietnam
Trinh Sinh
West Asian copper alloys
Ten millennia of metallurgy in Western Asia
Paul T. Craddock
Copper-zinc alloys at Nuzi: dilemmas from an early excavation
Katherine Eremin, Susanna Kirk, Andrew Shortland and Megan Richters
Reconstructing ancient technologies: Chalcolithic crucible smelting at Tal-i Iblis, Iran
Lesley D. Frame
Metallurgy during the Middle Chalcolithic period in the Southern Caucasus: insight through recent discoveries at Mentesh-Tepe, Azerbaijan
Antoine Courcier, Bertille Lyonnet and Farhad Guliyev
The casting techniques of antique South Arabian large bronze statues
Benoît Mille
Medieval Islamic copper alloys
Susan La Niece, Rachel Ward, Duncan Hook and Paul Craddock
