Opening quotation mark.
The most remarkable feature of the collection is the magnificent crystal sphere, the Dowager Empress. Originally a treasure of the Imperial Palace in Pekin, it had wandered for a decade or more though the country, heard of here and there, always eagerly sought, but continually lost sight of, until at last this summer it appeared in Shanghai and was acquired by the Wanamaker Store.

The Penn Museum's crystal sphere was purchased in 1927 from the famous John Wanamaker Department Store in Philadelphia. The buyer was Eldrige Reeves Johnson, a wealthy board member of the museum, who had made a small fortune as the head of the Victor Talking Company which specialized in making phonographs. Johnson donated the ball to the museum in memory of George Byron Gordon, the recently deceased Director of the Penn Museum. In the booklet that accompanied its sale, the department store advanced an exciting tale of the sphere’s exotic origins, implying that it had once belonged to the Empress Dowager Cixi (1836-1908 CE) of China:

"The most remarkable feature of the collection is the magnificent crystal sphere, the Dowager Empress. Originally a treasure of the Imperial Palace in Pekin, it had wandered for a decade or more though the country, heard of here and there, always eagerly sought, but continually lost sight of, until at last this summer it appeared in Shanghai and was acquired by the Wanamaker Store."

No evidence has ever come to light that supports this story. Rather, the ball was likely made from a rock crystal deposit found in 1923 in Burma and then cut and polished in Shanghai before being imported into the United States. This mirrors the same provenance as the largest crystal ball in the world, now at the Smithsonian, which entered the U.S. around the same time. The Penn Museum’s example is believed to be the fourth largest crystal sphere in the world, with a diameter of 25.4 cm.

The stand, in the shape of a wave, was made in Japan, but bears no maker’s mark, only the words: “Made in Japan” on the underside. A photograph from the Wanamaker catalog shows the sphere resting on a different stand from its current one. This may mean the wave stand was commissioned as a replacement for the old stand.

The sphere is not made of glass, but rather from a naturally occurring crystal of pure quartz.

It currently resides in the center of the Rotunda in the Asia Galleries where it continues to delight and fascinate visitors young and old.

What in the World - Part Five by Pablo Heguera

This video is the fifth installment of What in the World, a series of six videos produced by Pablo Helguera on the history of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Two children marvelling at the crystal ball.
"Two Children and Crystal Ball" A stunning, candid shot of schoolchildren marveling at the play of light in the Museum’s Chinese crystal sphere. Photographed by Reuben Goldberg, ca. 1954.