This is a model of the Great Pagoda or Pagoda of the Northern Temple (Beisi ta 北寺塔), which is located in Suzhou, Jiangsu. The 9-storey octagonal brick and wood pagoda was constructed during the Song dynasty in 1160 A.D. and measures 76.2 metres. In the exhibition catalogue for these pagoda models, the Great Pagoda was described as “one of the highest and most beautiful of China.” The model is one of a set of 84 carved after famous originals scattered throughout China, for the Chinese exhibition at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco, one of the first to represent the newly formed Republic of China. Scaled down at a ratio of 1:50, they were made by the Tushanwan 土山湾Workshop, a Christian orphanage in Shanghai that trained its residents in vocational art and crafts. The woodcarving workshop, supervised by the Bavarian-born Jesuit Aloysius Beck (1854-1931), employed both local and Western styles and techniques to produce figures of traditional Chinese gods alongside those of Catholic saints.
