The latest issue of Expedition magazine features an article on the Penn Museum’s crystal ball. In honor of the 100th anniversary of its appearance on the art market, the article overturns the previous assertion that it was created in the 18th century and was once part of the imperial collections in China.
As part of research done on the Museum’s crystal ball I encountered many other large crystal balls each with their own unique histories and provenances. What follows is my Top 10 List of Crystal Balls (That I Know Of), numbered from largest to smallest.
Many of them are held in museums across the U.S., so I encourage those who are interested to see them in person. You might want to double-check the respective websites of the museums which steward them to see if they are on display before you visit.
1. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Current Institution: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Size: 12.875”
Rock Source: Burma
Stand: None
Collector: Worcester Reed Warner
Viewable to the Public: Yes, Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
The world’s largest crystal ball is in The Smithsonian’s collection measuring 12.875 inches in diameter and weighing in at 106.75 pounds. It was imported into the U.S. in November of 1924 and purchased by Worcester Reed Warner, a wealthy manufacturer of telescope lenses and military equipment. Warner was so instrumental in making telescopes that he has a crater on the Moon named after him. The sphere was donated to the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History by his widow Cornelia Blakemore Warner in 1929 after being on loan for five years. Its provenance was recently published in a book by the curator emeritus Jefferey Post and shows that it came from a rock deposit in Burma, which was cut and polished in Shanghai before being exported to America. It currently sits on display in the museum’s Hall of Gems and Minerals in Washington, D.C., just a stones throw away from the Hope Diamond.
2. The Crow Collection at The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum
Current Institution: The Crow Collection at The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum
Size: 11.375”
Rock Source: Japan
Stand: Silver with waves and dragons
Collector: Trammell and Margaret Crow
Viewable to the Public: Yes, The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum
The second largest crystal ball in the world is believed to have come from Japan. It is 11.375 inches in diameter and sits atop a beautiful silver stand of waves teeming with dragons. It was acquired in 1983 by Trammel and Margaret Crow, real estate developers based out of Texas, for their Asian art collection. After doing a stint inside a dance club called Mistral in Dallas it made its way to the Crow Museum of Art where it was displayed in a custom display case made by local woodworker William Schieffer. It now resides in “The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum” at the University of Texas, Dallas. It is displayed next to other rock crystal objects including a set of five smaller crystal balls, which rest on a bronze stand of waves.
3. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Current Institution: Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County
Size: 10.75”
Rock Source: China (uncertain)
Stand: Plastic ring
Collector: Dr. Ruth Dowling Bruun
Viewable to the Public: Yes, Gem and Mineral Hall
The third on the list is also part of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum but has been on loan to the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County since 1985. It is 10.75 inches in diameter and supposedly came from China. It has been featured in various exhibits and now resides in their mineral and gems gallery.
4. The Penn Museum’s “Dowager Empress”
Current Institution: Penn Museum
Size: 10”
Rock Source: Burma
Stand: Waves
Collector: Eldridge Reeves Johnson
Viewable to the Public: Yes, Asia Galleries 54 (Rotunda)
The fourth largest crystal ball in the world is at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia and is 10 inches in diameter. It first appeared in the Wanamaker’s Department store in November of 1924 with the name “Dowager Empress” attached to it. This was a reference to the Empress Dowager Cixi who ruled over China in the late Qing Dynasty.
While Wanamaker’s claimed it once belonged to the imperial collections in Beijing, it almost certainly came from the same Burmese rock crystal deposit that produced the Smithsonian’s ball. This means it was likely cut and polished sometime in 1923 rather than the 18th century! When it went on display in New York, the asking price for the sphere was $50,000. At the time it was touted as the largest in the world. This was true until the Smithsonian’s Warner crystal ball (No. 1) appeared in early 1925.
The “Dowager Empress” caught the eye of Eldridge Reeves Johnson, a Penn Museum board member, who was interested in collecting precious gems as a hobby. He ended up buying the ball and other objects made of precious stones and donated them to the Penn Museum in 1927. His life’s work as an inventor is chronicled in a museum in Dover Delaware and well worth a visit. The Wanamaker Department store, the brainchild of John Wanamaker, is now a Macy’s and has a Christmas display that lights up in concert with its famous organ. In 1988, the crystal ball was stolen along with an Egyptian statue of Osiris. The story of its recovery was chronicled briefly in a chapter from the book Priceless about the creation of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. (The Osiris statue was also recovered.)
On view in the Asia Galleries, peer into this mesmerizing object during CultureFest! Lunar New Year on January 25 as the Penn Museum celebrates various vibrant Asian traditions of ringing in the new year!
5. Private Collection
Current Institution: Unknown
Size: 9.825”
Rock Source: Unknown
Stand: Wood
Collector: Chinese Family Collection
Viewable to the Public: No, current location unknown
The fifth largest crystal ball is one of the few on the list not in a public institution. It was sold through Christie’s in 2004 and was listed as being acquired in Shanghai in the 1930s-1940’s from a Chinese family. This is consistent with the Smithsonian’s crystal ball (see No. 1) which was created in the early 1920’s and likely followed the same pipeline that created the Penn Museum ball and two similar sized ones (see No. 6). It was sold along with a wooden stand that may have been created specifically for it.
6. The “Emperor” and the “Empress”
Current Institution: du Pont Family
Size: Emperor: 9”, Empress: 8.9375”
Rock Source: Burma
Stand: Wood
Collector: Pierre S. du Pont
Viewable to the Public: No, private collection
These two crystal balls appeared in May of 1924 in a Wanamaker’s ad which touted them as the largest in the world at 9 inches and 8 15/16 inches in diameter. A few months later they appeared in a magazine ad side by side and then in an issue of Popular Science. It is highly probably that they started out as raw rock crystals in Burma and were mined from the same deposit as the Smithsonian Ball (no. 1) and the Penn Museum (no. 4) examples.
The names likely reflect the fact that they were cut and polished in China and brokered through the Wanamaker’s Shanghai branch which opened in 1924. The naming convention also helps explain why Wanamaker’s called the Penn Museum’s sphere the “Dowager Empress” as it was slightly larger than these two examples and so prince or princess wouldn’t make sense. Eventually they were purchased by Pierre S. du Pont who displayed them at his home Longwood Gardens in their ballroom. The balls have since been removed from public display, but the ballroom, which features an enormous pipe organ, is worth the visit. As is the one in the old Wanamaker’s building for that matter!
7. The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Current Institution: The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Size: 8.5”
Rock Source: Unknown
Stand: Silver waves
Collector: Mary Hoyt Williams Crozier
Viewable to the Public: No, but has been on display in the past
Philadelphia has a storied history with crystal balls. Four crystal balls have come through the city at various points, and two of those landed in museums. This one is part of a larger collection of rock crystal objects put together by General William Crozier and his wife, Mary Hoyt Williams Crozier, and donated to The Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1944. The Croziers had travelled to China in the 1920’s and became fascinated with rock crystal objects, putting together a collection of over a hundred examples which were documented in a catalog. The stand is Japanese and made of silver, with a wave pattern, a common motif for such stands as evidence by a similar one that sold in 2013.
8. The Cleveland Museum of Art
Current Institution: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Size: 7.875”
Rock Source: Japan
Stand: Silver waves and dragon
Collector: Worcester Reed Warner
Viewable to the Public: No
The Cleveland Museum of Art has multiple crystal balls with the largest one being around 7.875 inches diameter, which sits on a silver stand made of waves and a dragon. It was also donated to the museum by Cornelia Blakemore Warner, the widow of Worcester Reed Warner, the owner of the largest crystal ball in the world which is at the Smithsonian (see No. 1). He, like Crozier, had a catalog put together of his collection. A copy was sent to the Penn Museum’s director, George Byron Gordon, in the early 1920’s, which may have put crystal balls on the Director’s mind. When the department store Wanamaker’s offered to loan the du Pont balls (No. 6 on this list) to the museum around 1925, Gordon jumped at the chance and had them displayed for the public. Interestingly, Wanamaker’s also used the stand or one like it in a Christmas ad in 1926. The ball was a highlight in the recent traveling exhibit “Meiji Modern: Fifty Year of New Japan.”
9. Lyndhurst Mansion
Current Institution: Lyndhurst Museum
Size: 7.5”
Rock Source: Japan
Stand: Dragon
Collector: Helen Gould
Viewable to the Public: Yes
The crystal ball at Lyndhurst was purchased in 1898 by Helen Gould, a socialite who grew up in the New York City area. Her father, Jay Gould, reportedly purchased a crystal ball in 1889, which was just over six inches. The same report mentions that the largest example at that time was owned by Mr. John D. Rockefeller suggesting that the wealthy at the turn of the century were growing fascinated with crystal balls of all sizes. An article in Harper’s published in 1879 highlighting the rock crystal industry in Japan may have increased interest in the public at large.
That same article mentions a Japanese crystal ball on display at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia measuring 7 inches in size. The Gould crystal ball is a feature of the Lyndhurst mansion in Tarrytown, NY and particularly visible during Halloween where it takes pride of place in one of the rooms. This crystal ball perhaps most readily reflects a fascination with spiritualism and the paranormal at the time that Helen Gould lived. The mansion, with its gothic revival architecture, is therefore a fitting venue. That said, it does sit on a dragon base which hints at its Japanese origins.
10. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Current Institution: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Size: 7.25”
Rock Source: Japan
Stand: Silver dragon and waves
Collector: Frederick Lothrop Ames
Viewable to the Public: No
The crystal ball at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) wins the prize for best provenance. From the mountain to the museum, there is documentation about where the original rock crystal was mined and the hands that it passed through before landing in the MFA Boston’s collection. The stand is also a marvel of Japanese artisanry and was commissioned from the artist Suzuki Chokichi through the art dealer Yamanaka & Co. There is an inscription on the base featuring a kao for the artist. Like other stands on the list, it features waves and a dragon motif. The raw rock crystal was purchased at the Second Tokyo Exposition in 1881. Crystal balls and other goods made of rock crystal had been on display at previous world’s fairs like the one in Vienna in 1873. A crystal ball in the Tokyo National Museum was a gift from the Vienna World Exposition Bureau, which was made by Asakura Matsugoro of Tokyo who also displayed rock crystal ornaments at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia.
Stephen Lang is the Lyons Keeper of Collections in the Asian Section at the Penn Museum.
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