Page 65 - Bonhams Art from the Scholar's Studio, September 16, 2013 NY

Property Formerly in the Collection of Konrad and
Clara Mauerer

Konrad and Clara Mauerer, photographed at Cologne in the early 1920s.

Bonhams is delighted to present a selection of works formerly in the collection
of Konrad Mauerer (1886–1964). The Mauerer family’s residence in China
spanned three generations, beginning with Franz Xaver Mauerer (died at
Qingdao in 1927), a Dresden native, who journeyed to China in 1890 and
became a prominent architect in Germany’s settlement at Qingdao. His son,
Konrad Mauerer, was born in the medieval city of Bautzen, Saxony and after
being raised by grandparents in Germany through his teen years, joined his
father in China shortly before World War I. The younger Herr Mauerer attained
Mandarin fluency after several years of Chinese education in a Buddhist
monastery, and subsequently he embarked on a career distributing textiles dyes
throughout China for the German chemical giant Bayer-Hoechst. He married
Clara Mauerer (1893-1985) in Shanghai and subsequently they made a home
for their children at Hankou, in what is now Wuhan, Hubei. The Mauerer family
acquired significant holdings of Chinese art, including the bronze figure of the
Buddha offered as lot 8104, which they displayed at their spacious art deco
villa on Northfield Road in Hankou. As World War II approached, the family
made preparations to immigrate to the United States, with the expectation that
they would soon return to China, which they regarded as their home. History
was to intervene however, and after the family sailed from Shanghai in 1939,
they settled in the United States permanently. The Mauerer art collection has
remained within the family to the present day.

Chinese Art From The Scholar’s Studio | 63