Things

Can things that eke out their dreary existence in showcases and depots speak for themselves? And if so, who understands their murmuring? The concise, often dry exhibition texts pretend to know their stuff. They inform about age, material, origin and use. Many visitors are happy to have something to read. Often it is enough just to have a text hanging next to the piece. “Mobile Worlds” chose a different path. Yes, there were also texts (and pictures) in the form of a small catalog. But otherwise things were just meant to be things. What really mattered was their correspondence – the stuff they had to communicate to each other. That exchange we wanted to follow.

Isis with the Child Horus

Isis with the Child Horus, Egypt, around 664 – 340 BCE, bronze.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Shard with palmette

Shard with palmette, Hellenistic, Apulian-red figure, 2nd half 4th century BCE, Clay.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Aphrodite

Aphrodite, South Italian, 2nd half 4th/3rd Century BCE, clay.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Black Madonna

Postcard of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa – Cudowny Obraz Matki Bożej Jasnogórski (15th century), Poland, 1982.
Private Collection

Bottle with pseudo-arabic ribbon

Bottle with pseudo-arabic ribbon and cranes in medallions, Chinese export porcelain in Kraak style, China, Ming Dynasty, late 16th century. Porcelain, cobalt blue under the glaze, engraved decoration.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Plate with pseudo-Chinese script

Plate with sheet and pseudo-Chinese script in Chinese Kraak style, with pseudo branding on the ground in Chinese style, Iran, Safavid dynasty, 17th century, Quartz frit, cobalt blue under the glaze faience.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Cithrinchen

Cithrinchen by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, Germany 1688.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Coffeepot

Export porcelain for the European market, China, Kangxi period, around 1700, Porcelain.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

tsuba (sword guard)

tsuba, Japan, ca. 1700, Iron, brass, copper alloy (sentoku).
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Teapot

Teapot, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory, Meissen, Germany, early 18th century, Böttger stoneware.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Augustus the Strong

Johann Joachim Kretzschmar (?): August the Strong, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory, Meissen, Germany ca. 1715, Clay.
Courtesy of Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin

Drinking bowl and lower shell with Chinese merchant shipping scene

Drinking bowl and lower shell, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory,  Meissen, Germany around 1725, Porcelain.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Wardian Case

Gaspard Duché de Vancy: Boxes for the sea transport of plants, Aquarell 1735, manuscript Ms. 1546/14.
Courtesy the Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris

“Indian lovers”

Model by Johann Joachim Kändler, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory, Meissen, Germany, around 1745, Porcelain.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Johann Hinrich Dimpfel

Portrait bust of the Hamburg merchant Johann Hinrich Dimpfel, Hamburg, Germany, 1747, Ivory.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Clutch bag with a parrot

Clutch bag, Germany, mid-18th century, Silk, silver thread effect technique, silver strap.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

“African” with elephant skin

Figurine, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory, Meissen, Germany, mid-18th century, Porcelain.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Dutch baroque cabinet

Cabinet, Holland, 17th century
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

 

Shell painted with a palmette border

Shell, Wedgwood, Staffordshire, England, 18th century, Black basalt ware.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Shard with chinoiserie

Shard with chinoiserie, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory, Meissen, Germany, 18th century, porcelain.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Set with Indian textile patterns

Set, Manufacture royale de porcelaine de Sèvres, Sèvres, France, 1769, Porcelain.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Bowl

Bowl, Wedgwood, Staffordshire, England, late 18th century, Black Basalt Ware.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Lamp stand

Lamp stand, frieze with children playing blind man’s buff, modeled by John Flaxman, Wedgwood, Staffordshire, England, around 1800, Jasperware.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Touissant Louverture

John Kay: Touissant Louverture, Edinburgh, 1802, Radierung.
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Suzanne le Pelletier de Saint-Fargeau

Jacques Louis David: Portrait of Suzanne le Pelletier de Saint-Fargeau, France, 1804, oil on canvas

Constitution of Hayti, 1805

Jacques Dessalines: Constitution d’Haïti. 20 mai 1805.
Courtesy of Bibliothèque nationale de France

Joséphine

Antoine-Jean Gros: Portrait of Joséphine de Beauharnais, oil on canvas, 1808-1809

Statuette of an Egyptian

Statuette of an Egyptian, France (?), early 19th century, Porcelain.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Embroidery »Eucharis«

Embroidery, Germany, 1800-1830, horse hair.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Empire coffee set with Egyptian decor

Empire coffee set with Egyptian decor, Manufacture Giustiniani, Naples, Italy, around 1820.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Long scarf

Scarf, Kashmir, India, 1820-40, Basic fabric: twill, goat wool, Pattern fabric: Weaving composed of several parts, goat wool.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Gag

Gag, Brazil, 19th century, Iron.
Courtesy of Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo.

Porcelain Production

Packing the Porcelain; c. 1825; Guangzhou; China; Gouache on paper; Peabody Essex Museum; Photo: Jeffrey R. Dykes
MIT © 2009 Visualizing Cultures

»Ivory Caravan«

Postcard, 19th century, private collection

Letter to the president of Bahia

Letter written and signed by Pedro Peycke, April 15th, 1832.
Courtesy of Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (APEB) (1820-1869), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

Woven Portrait of Jospeh Marie Jacquard

Jacquard-woven picture “A la memoire de J.M. Jacquard” after the original by C. Bonnefond, Lyons, France, 1839, silk.
Courtesy of Science Museum London

Analytical Engine

The general plan of Mr. Babbage’s Great Calculating Engine. Arrangement and rack, details, et cetera (The Babbage Papers), England, 1840.
Courtesy of Science Museum London

Ada Lovelace

Alfred Edward Chalon: Portrait of Ada, Countess of Lovelace, England, 1840, Watercolour.
Courtesy of Science Museum London

Hair Medaillon

Medaillon, Germany, 19th century.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Hercules Sägemann Advertisement

Hercules Sägemann Advertisement, Heinrich Schroeder´s Kunstanstalt Nürnberg, around 1850, Color printing.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Farmhouse cupboard

Farmhouse cupboard, Vierlanden near Hamburg, Germany, 19th Century, Wood, photography by Wilhelm Weimar, 1906.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Objects in Gutta Percha

Objects in Gutta Percha by the Gutta Percha Company, The Great Exhibition, London, England, 1851, photography by Claude-Marie Ferrier.
Courtesy of Royal Collection Trust

Postcard depicting the Suez Canel

Postcard, Egypt, 19th century.
Private collection

Rechaud in the shape of an »oriental woman«

Rechaud, Europe, around 1860. porcelain.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Jacquard loom

Model of a Jacquard loom (Scale 1:2), unknown maker, England, 1867, (copper, zinc alloy), cardboard, cotton (fibre), ivory, mahogany (wood), wood (unidentified) and wrought iron.
Courtesy of Science Museum London

Ivory warehouse

Ivory warehouse of Hamburg’s walking-stick factory »Heinrich Christian Meyer jr.« at Großen Grasbrook, Hamburg, Germany, around 1870.
Courtesy of Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg

Figure of a Christian missionary

Figure, Congo, 19th century, Ivory.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Cafe from the World’s Fair in Vienna

Adolph von Menzel: “Indian Cafe” at the World’s Fair in Vienna, 1873. Bodycolour on paper.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Double door of a cupboard

Double door of a cupboard, India, Kashmir, late 19th century, wood with lacquer painting and gold.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Yuanming Yuan

Ernst Ohlmer: Imperial summer palace in China (Beijing), destructed 1860, China, 1873. Photography on album paper.
Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Kunstbibliothek. © bpk-Bildagentur

Photography of the World’s Fair 1873

Josef Löwy/ Wiener Photographen-Association: World’s Fair 1873. (Nr. 525: Native-American Wigwam), photography, Wien, Österreich, 1873.
(c) Wien Museum Online Collection

Walking-Sticks

Page from the walking stick product catalogue of the Heinrich Christian Meyer jr. company; rubber walking sticks with ivory handles, ca. 1875.
Courtesy of Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg

Opium pipe with ivory mouthpiece

Opium pipe, China, late 19th century, Lacquer, ivory, metal.
Private collection

Fellah Woman with Niqab

Photography by Hippolyte Arnoux, Egypt, late 19th century.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Opium pillow

Opium pillow, China, late 19th century, Porcelain.
Private collection

Japanese silk fabric with ducks

Textile, Japan, Meiji period, late 19th century, silk.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Glass Cone

Black glass, white, wavy tight pattern. Possibly from the collection Pauly, then: modern/Jugendstil manufactory Heuberg-Lichte. Without inventory number.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Hair braid samples

Paperboard with hair braid samples, Germany, late 19th Century.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Okimono in shape of an Egyptian

Okimono, Japan, Meiji-Period, late 19th century, Ivory.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Tusk

Carved Tusk, Congo (Loango Coast), Late 19th Century, Ivory.
Courtesy of Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

Rolling Music Box

Rolling Music Box with additional percussion idiophones, Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, around 1895.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Bugatti Shelf

Carlo Bugatti. Mailand, Italy, 1888 – 1895. Material. Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Vierlande

Hermann Haase: Various aquarelle depicting rural life, Vierlande near Hamburg, Germany, around 1900.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

pewter beaker

beaker with a portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm and the outline of the battleship, Wilhelmshaven, Germany, around 1900, pewter.
Private Collection

Transatlantic Telegraph Cable

First transatlantic cable of the German-Atlantic Telegraph Company, Emden – Borkum – Azores – New York, 2-core telegraphic sea cable, 1900, Metals, textiles, plastics.
Courtesy of Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation

Emigration Halls

Medical examination in the emigrant halls of the Hamburg-America Line, around 1900, © Staatsarchiv Hamburg

Sword accessories and Tsuba

Wilhelm Weimar, Sword accessories and Tsuba, Hamburg, Germany, ca. 1902, glass negative.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Tapestry »Ducks«

Tapestry by Carlotta Brinckmann, Scherrebek, Germany, early 20th century, wool, cotton chain.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Notebook by Shinkichi Hara

Book with notes by Shinkichi Hara, Hamburg, Germany, early 20th Century.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Hercules Sägemann Advertisement

Oversized comb for advertising purposes, Hercules Sägemann (New York Hamburger-Gummi Waaren Compagnie), Hamburg, Germany, early 20th century, Ebonite (natural rubber).
Courtesy of the Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg

Reticello glass

cReticello glass, Venice, Italy, 20th century.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

»Enthroned Goddess«

Plaster cast of the »Great Sitter« (»Enthroned Goddess«)(Original: Tell Halaf, Nordeast-Syria, 9th century BCE (at Pergamon Museum Berlin)), Berlin, Germany, ca. 1912, Plaster.
Courtesy of the Gipsformerei der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin

Excavation at Tell Halaf

The “Enthroned Goddess”, near her site on Tell Halaf, northeastern Syria, 1912.
Courtesy of the Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung

Baghdad railway

Construction of the Baghdad railway, passage with Km 35, Toprakkale/Alexandrette, photography presumably by engineer G. E. Ott. Turkey, 1913.
© BBWA U 5/3 Bildarchiv der Philipp Holzmann AG / Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie e.V. www.holzmann-bildarchiv.de

Euphrates Bridge

© BBWA U 5/3 Bildarchiv der Philipp Holzmann AG / Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie e.V. www.holzmann-bildarchiv.de

Shinkichi Hara

Photograpy of Shinkichi Hara, Hamburg, early 20th century.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Chandelier

Fragments of the chandelier of the mosque in the “Halbmondlager” (Crescent Moon Camp) Wünstorf near Zossen (Brandenburg), iron, 1915, Photo: Torsten Dressler

Portraits by Hermann Struck

Hermann Struck: “Kriegsgefangene” (“prisoners of war”), Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen) 1915 – 1916, lithographs. Courtesy of Jüdisches Museum Berlin, Photo: Jens Ziehe

Hyakusenkai Graph (百選会 呉服催事カタログ資料 「百選会グラフ」大阪店発行)

Catalogue with Kimono patterns of the department store Takashimaya, Osaka, Japan, early 20th century.
Courtesy of Takashimaya Historical Museum/ Takashimaya Archives, Osaka

Tell Halaf Museum

Entrance to Tell Halaf Museum within a former machine factory, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany, 1930ies.
Courtesy of Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung, Hausarchiv des Bankhauses Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie., Köln

Baby Kimono

Baby cotton kimono: submarine, battleship and airplanes, 1930ies, private collection

Research by Zora Neale Hurston

“Felicia Felix-Mentor, the Zombie”, in: Zora Neale Hurston: Tell My Horse. Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica, 1938, p.181

Osaka Elegy

Mizoguchi Kenji (溝口 健二): Osaka Elegy (浪華悲歌, Naniwa ereji), 1938

Erzulie Dantor

Erzulie Dantor, depicted on a Vodoun Banner, Haiti, 1940ies, sequins and beads on fabric.
Courtesy of Martina Kudláček

Bahia, 1940ies

Photography by Pierre Verger, Bahia, Brasil, 1940ies.
Courtesy of Instituto Lina Bo e P. M. Bardi, São Paulo

Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham and Company performs West Indian Creole music in form of ballet, at the Cambridge Theatre, London, England, 1952.
copyright British Pathé

Rhythm Ace FR-1

Ace Tone Rhythm Ace FR-1, drum machine, designed by Ikutaro Kakehashi, Japan 1967. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions, HA.com

Black Power Comb

“Styling Pik”, Antonio’s Manufacturing Inc., Cresson, Pennsylvania/USA, 1972, plastic, metal.

Sun Ra

Filmstill by: John Coney: Space is the Place, USA, 1974. © North American Star System Production & Rapid Eye Movies

When the »Münsterland« returned

Welcoming the “Münsterland” in the port of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, 1975.
Courtesy of Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg

Industrial Sounds

Schafer, R. Murray: The soundscape. Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world, Destiny Books: Rochester, Vermont 1977, p. 79. Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world, Destiny Books: Rochester, Vermont 1994, p. 79

Issey Miyake

Coat, Issey Miyake Tokio, Japan, A/W 1985.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Plastic Bowl

Wedgwood style Blue and White Plastic Bowl , England, 1985. Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Bales of natural rubber

Natural rubber, Brasil, late 20th Century.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Catherine Flon

10-Goudres banknote with a picture of Catherine Flon, issued by Banque de la République d’Haïti, 2000.
Private collection

Souvenir

Plate depicting the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Safi, Morocco, 2003, ceramic.
Courtesy of Ahmed Salmann

Am I not a Man and a Brother?

Commemorative bowl with abolitionist motifs, Waterford Wedgwood. Staffordshire, England, 2007, green and black Jasperware.
Private collection

Lady’s coat by Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen, lady’s coat, London, England, Pre-Fall 2009. Woolen material, tumbled, roughened, (75% wool, 25% cashmere), patterned silk fabric, silk chiffon.
Courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Top from Comme des Garçons

Top from Comme des Garçons, Japan, 2010s. Polyester.
Private collection

Object No. 42 (The Dockers’ Museum)

Allan Sekula, 2010-, Football signed by Pelé. Courtesy of M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp), Antwerp

Baroque door of a mosque in Porto-Novo

Porto-Novo, Benin. Photgraph by Romuald Hazoumé, 2010.
Courtesy the artist

Bowl with ornamental loops

Bowl, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, 2014, Clay.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Manbij 2016

Shervan Derwish: Videostill, Manbij 2016

Crab from Muranoglas

Animal figurine, Venice, Italy, 2017, murano glass.
Private Collection

Buoy with barnacles

Buoy with barnacles, collected by Charles Lim Yi Yong, Singapore, 2017.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Zizha Object

Replica of a paper shoe (Zizha), which was discovered by Aurel Stein in Turfan and which was lost since the cultural revolution.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Hercules Sägemann Pocket Styler

coarse-toothed travel comb No. 372 WW – 62WW · 3½”, Germany 2018, Ebonite (natural rubber). Private Collection

Plaster cast »Benin Head«

Plaster cast of a bronze Head of a Queen Mother (Iyoba Idia), Kingdom of Benin (original: 16th century), plaster, 2018.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

Display case with opium pipe

Display, Chinese National Museum, Beijing, 2019.