A collaboration between the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Maritime Museum of San Diego will bring to San Diego the exhibition “Mariners & Mandarins: Seafaring and the Arts of the China Trade.” The show features pieces created by Chinese artisans during the 18th and 19th centuries exclusively and specifically for export to the West.

Canton, now Guangzhau, was the primary Chinese trading port during the height of its export era from 1720 to 1860. The risky round trip from the Eastern United States to Canton around Cape Horn took about two years with a risk of pirates on the China Seas. However, potential profits lured traders to make the voyage.

Chinese porcelain reigned as the upper class status symbol in America and Europe during this era. Mark Allen, curator of special exhibits at the Maritime Museum and co-curator of this exhibit, attributes the high demand for Chinese export art to its ability to “capture Westerners’ imagination and fantasies of China.”

All of the art and artifacts in the exhibition are drawn from the private collections of the Kelton Foundation. Richard Kelton, a Marina del Rey resident, has provided the exhibition with more than 300 original artifacts from his personal collection.

The exhibition is divided between two venues, each with its own theme. The theme at MCASD is “Celestial Cargo, Treasures from the China Trade”; it will focus on cultural and artistic aspects of the Chinese trade including paintings, porcelain, furniture, silver, textiles and ivory and jade carvings. A few blocks away on the Star of India, the theme is “The Race for Riches,” and focuses on the historical, maritime and sociological aspects of the West’s trade with the Far East.

This exhibit will run from March 9 through Sept.14.

— Danielle Liss