SFX: Bell chime…

ACTOR (“KÉRAMOS, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW):

And yonder by Nankin, behold!

The Tower of Porcelain, strange and old,

Uplifting to the astonished skies...

NARRATOR: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his 1878 world-traveling poem “Kéramos,” describes Nankin’s famous nine-story Porcelain Pagoda, now destroyed. This wonder of the medieval world stoked Westerners’ imaginations about China’s great, ancient civilization. This model of that pagoda is a wonder, the ivory carved with exceeding delicacy in floral and geometric patterns.

Samuel Shaw, lead business agent aboard the first American trade ship to China in 1784, kept this pagoda from that journey. It was one of many handmade luxury goods acquired to feed American hunger for Chinese wares, which shared the holds with tea, a staple then as coffee is today.

Here’s an excerpt from Shaw’s journal from that first voyage on The Empress of China:

VOICEOVER, AS SHAW: Ours being the first American ship that had ever visited China, it was some time before the Chinese could fully comprehend the distinction between Englishmen and us. They styled us the New People, and when, by the map, we conveyed to them an idea of the extent of our country, with its present and increasing population, they were not a little pleased at the prospect of so considerable a market for the productions of their own empire.

NARRATOR: Trade with China becomes synonymous with America’s new independence. No longer forced to contend with British control of the tea trade, the young country foresaw a heady new era of material riches. Again, an excerpt of Longfellow’s poem:

ACTOR (“KÉRAMOS, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW):

The Tower of Porcelain, strange and old,

Uplifting to the astonished skies

Its ninefold painted balconies,

With balustrades of twining leaves,

And roofs of tile, beneath whose eaves

Hang porcelain bells that all the time

Ring with a soft, melodious chime…