After more than a decade in which the subfield of Chinese art history has encouraged younger scholars to produce work resonant with the larger concerns of the discipline, Lara Netting's A Perpetual Fire poses a paradox. The book is clearly about collecting, a subject integral to the formation of art history. Yet, the empirical detail of the text—firmly grounded in archival materials not previously published—and its lack of a larger conceptual framing with respect to the field of Chinese art history renders it difficult to read for all but the most dedicated specialist and/or the most academic-jargon-averse popular reader. At a time when the subfield of Chinese art history is poised between hard-won gains in producing, on the one hand, work in the vein of the New Art History and, on the other, work informed by a return to the object, Netting's book is neither. Rather, it charts an alternative course by presenting, in gritty detail, a scholarly biography of John Calvin Ferguson (1866–1945), also known by his Chinese name of Fu Kaisen 福開森.
A Perpetual Fire chronologically narrates Ferguson's activity as a Canadian-American missionary, Chinese official, sinologist/sinophile, dealer, and collector. Specialists in the field know Ferguson's career in part through the work of Thomas Lawton and Warren Cohen. Moving beyond these schematic studies, the finely grained text of A Perpetual Fire draws upon archival documents in the Freer Gallery of Art, the United Methodist Church Archives, the Capital Library Historical Documents Center (Beijing), the Nanjing University Library Rare Book Room, and the Nanjing University Museum of Archaeology and Art. Netting's close reading of these sources (anglophone, classical Chinese, and images) allows her to retell the early history of Chinese art history from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century as a narrative centered on John Ferguson. Moreover, A Perpetual Fire elucidates Ferguson's engagement with Qing officials of the period—for example, Sheng Xuanhuai 盛宣懷 (1844–1916) and Zhang Zhidong 張之洞 (1837–1909)—and illuminates his interactions with the most prominent figures in the Chinese art world—for example, Duanfang 端方 (1861–1911), Florence Ayscough (ca. 1875–1942), J. P. Morgan (1837–1913), Cai Naihuang 蔡乃煌 (1860–1916), Robert de Forest (1848–1931), Wanyan Jingxian 完顏景賢 (ca. 1875–ca. 1928), and Jin Cheng 金城 (1867–1926), to name but a few. Through careful historical reconstruction, A Perpetual Fire reveals how Ferguson's involvement in the early market in Chinese antiquities shaped Chinese art collections, in turn giving rise to the art-historical study of Chinese objects.
Despite its meticulous scholarship, A Perpetual Fire might have done more to place Ferguson in the Canadian context that he both eschewed and embraced. Netting notes some activity by Ferguson at the University of Toronto, namely his lecturing at University College and the Royal Ontario Museum in 1944 (p. 210). This is significant for those interested in the development of the discipline, as the University of Toronto began to offer instruction in East Asian art history prior to 1933, becoming the third institution in North America to do so, after Princeton and Columbia, and awarded its first PhD in the field in 1943. Missing from Netting's account of Ferguson's activities in China and their impact on the formation of the field in North America is discussion of Ferguson's relationship with the Rt. Rev. William Charles White (1873–1960), Anglican Bishop of Henan and a fellow Canadian. In 1933, for example, the two men worked together to acquire the library of the scholar Mu Hsüeh-hsün 慕學勛 (1880–1929) for the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum, a purchase towards which Ferguson contributed funds.
Netting's method in A Perpetual Fire marks a departure from her dissertation, which clearly stated its objectives and beautifully articulated “big picture” ideas. In the opinion of this reviewer, these notions are as important as “the facts.” Indeed, it is difficult to evaluate the clarity and accuracy of the present book, as the authorial voice largely abstains from explicit commentary and conclusion. Additionally, a more detailed index would also have aided the reader interested in using the book as a reference tool: given the similarity of dissertation and book, it is faster to keyword search the dissertation for items of interest than to use the index of the published book.
Whether the reader will find Netting's historical method in A Perpetual Fire bracing or boring will likely depend on their own position in the lively debates about how Chinese art history might best be written. That Netting's story seems to tell itself, “objectively,” will give some academic readers pause. Nonetheless, A Perpetual Fire is an illuminating biography written from an admirable body of previously untapped material; it richly rewards the attentive and detail-oriented reader with a treasure trove of new data. It is thus an invaluable contribution to the growing literature that addresses the collecting of Chinese art outside China.
