Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia

"This fascinating study is meticulously researched and presented with verve. Anna Grasskamp is a rare scholar who is equally conversant with the European archives and the Chinese ones. Her examination of shells and other maritime organisms as collectible transcultural objects casts new light on these objects, and reveals attitudes towards alien creatures, faraway places, and the natural world that are quite different from modern attitudes."
- Dorothy Ko, Barnard College

“Grasskamp’s exquisitely illustrated study …offers interpretations of individual objects and the Chinese and/or Occidental symbolism associated with them, while at the same time, she tries to embed her findings in larger cultural patterns, variegated forms of local belief, and neglected traditions. … Conchophiles who wish to find out why and how the well-to-do adored nautilus shells and similar specimens will discover many fascinating details in Grasskamp’s account. … Art and Ocean Objects … will inspire scholars to explore the story of marine products in new ways; it is a lively contribution to the field of Euro-Asian (art) history and cultural exchange.”
-Roderich Ptak, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 2023, 86, 2

“Drawing on fields as diverse as art history, object studies, the history of science, and area studies to inform its robust methodology of material culture, the book brings much-needed nuance to the study of the transregional material culture of early modern Europe and China through the maritime world. …Drawing on this new perspective on connected maritime history, the book distinguishes itself by paying almost equal attention to the visual and material cultures of early modern Europe and China, at times articulating their connectivity through objects such as nautilus cups carved in Guangzhou and mounted in Europe, while also comparing patterns of knowledge and gendered imagination generated by shells in the two regions. Although connection and comparison are well-established methods in transregional and global history, Grasskamp adds nuance and complexity to them by way of (transmedial) materiality. …Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia successfully portrays seashells as boundary-crossing objects that went far beyond (re)connecting Europe and China to challenge the entrenched binaries of inanimate things and living organisms, reality and fantasy, secular and religious worlds, and human and non-human entities.“
- Kyoungjin Bae, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CAA Reviews , 2023, June

“Art and Ocean Objects is an important contribution to material culture studies and a model for inter- and cross-cultural studies. It is ambitious in tackling such a large subject—shells and the creatures that build them, the use of shells in art and as art, and common iconographies of shell art (maritime, marginal, erotic, and the feminine)—across the European and Asian cultures that made and collected such works. …. This study shows both the challenges and opportunities of exploring a broad geography and body of works. Grasskamp moves deftly between literary, philosophical, and religious texts and material and visual culture, weaving a rich and nuanced account, made possible by her comfort working with sources across time, cultures, and languages.”
- Marsely Kehoe, June in West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, 2023, 30, 1

“Grasskamp explores these associations …in her richly illustrated new book, Art and Ocean Objects, on the multicultural complexity of marine objects in early modern Eurasia. Through her expertise in both Asian and European art history (and languages) she is able to situate shells at the crossroads of China and Europe as natural objects and material entanglements…”
-Marika Kebluse, Renaissance Quartely, LXXVI, 3,2023