British Museum members' evening

The Chinese gallery at the British Museum has recently reopened, with a brighter, fresher look - and the South Asian gallery beyond is nearly ready -

 These tomb figures go back to 728 AD -

 One day I happened to be in the gallery and caught a talk on the roles of horses in Chinese culture - the big ones brought from Turkmenistan and points west in the 2nd century BC, gradually replacing the small native horses. And it was these big horses, raised in the north, that allowed Genghis Khan to take over not just China but a huge chunk of the world.

Here's a lovely delicate golden thing, over a doorway -

 ... and a long corridor full of jade through the centuries -

 A delicate dragon from the Ming dynasty, 1300-1700 approx. It's about 6cm wide - and jade is tough stuff to carve -

 In this grouping, the green bottle needs to come just a bit left, don't you think?

 These are modern jades - the teapot so thin it glows, the incense holder quite the opposite, and the jue vessel on the right looking sumptuously buttery -

 I wanted to hear about Scythian metalworking techniques, and it was worth the effort. Plus it's so special in the museum when it's not filled with bored tourists and inattentive schoolchildren. The cafe in the courtyard serves wine, and people patiently queue for the chance to attend the lectures as a string quartet plays nearby...