This thesis focuses upon the exhibition of Nathan Dunn's Chinese Collection of art and artefacts in London in the 1840s. The examination has been with a view to assessing the significance of the event in our understanding of cross-cultural representations in the nineteenth century. The first chapter traces the history and physical nature of the Collection, describing its origins in China, establishment in America and progress in England through to 1851. This is followed by an account of the extent of availability of Chinese culture here before the event, giving the context in which the audience would have perceived the display, and the likely points of reference they would have brought to it. The third chapter is a detailed analysis of a substantial sample of press reviews, which follows closely the preoccupations, techniques and vocabulary of the writers, bearing in mind the character of the exhibition as a representation of an enemy and 'Other' culture. The final chapter draws upon current thinking around exhibitions, from which ideas of the importance of the show within the histories of ethnological, object-based, and Eastern subjects in English scholarship and leisure have been attained. Whilst all the chapters address a wide range of material and literary data, each has been constructed with a keen awareness of the specific lines of inquiry generated by the Collection itself, and consequently the thesis maintains a tight chronological and conceptual form, dealing as far as possible with the direct historical demands and resources of the 1840s. The study concludes with a summary of the findings of the thesis in the light of both contemporary retrospective evaluations of the exhibition and pertinent present-day thought.

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