Well the Missus and I trundled out to Boston College’s McMullen Museum yesterday to check out Eaglemania: Collecting Japanese Art in Gilded Age America and say, it was swell.

Eaglemania: Collecting Japanese Art in Gilded Age America celebrates and contextualizes Boston College’s monumental bronze eagle, a replica of which now appears atop a column on the University’s Linden Lane. Revealed during its recent conservation to be a Japanese masterpiece from the Meiji period (1868–1912), the original eagle was donated to Boston College in the 1950s by the estate of diplomat and collector Larz Anderson (1866–1937) and his wife, Isabel (1876–1948) . . .

In the exhibition, bronze, silver, and ivory sculptures of birds of prey, folding screens, scroll paintings, netsuke, lacquerware, ceramics, and textiles join to bring the history of the stunning Boston College eagle to life.

The eagle is quite spectacular, so here’s a better view.

Many of the other nearly 100 objects in the exhibit – which range from hawks and eagles in the Edo period (1615–1868) to exquisitely crafted folding screens to stunning porcelain works – are equally arresting.

Representative samples:

The exhibit runs through June 2. Well worth a trundle.