Object size: 108.5 x 44.0 x 39.0 cm
This is a model of the Heaven Conferred Pagoda (Tianfeng ta 天奉塔). Built in 696 A.D. during the Tang dynasty in Ningbo, Zhejiang, the 7-storey octagonal tower measures 44.8 metres tall. 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.
