Object size: 146.7 x 35.7 x 35.7 cm
This carving is modelled after the So-called Iron Pagoda (Tie ta 铁塔) in Kaifeng, Henan. The 13-storey pagoda was built in the Tang dynasty from bricks with an iron top, and measures 71.6 metres.The model is one of a set of 84 carved after famous originals scattered throughout China, for the Chinese exhibition at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco, one of the first to represent the newly formed Republic of China. Scaled down at a ratio of 1:50, they were made by the Tushanwan 土山湾Workshop, a Christian orphanage in Shanghai that trained its residents in vocational art and crafts. The woodcarving workshop, supervised by the Bavarian-born Jesuit Aloysius Beck (1854-1931), employed both local and Western styles and techniques to produce figures of traditional Chinese gods alongside those of Catholic saints.
