China

In the 1950s Dr Adolphe Spruyt (1871-1956), who was born in Ghent and lived in Brussels, gifted a large part of his Chinese collection to what was then the Bijloke Museum. The collection includes pottery, porcelain, bronzes, furniture, textiles, paintings and lacquerware. These are religious and ornamental objects and objects which played a social role. As well as several items from the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the collection comprises objects from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries.