Page 14 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

for £35 and is now included in the Bonhams Exhibition
Catalogue, no.31. It does seem possible that their small
but excellent collection of delicate Beijing and Canton-
decorated enamels may have appealed particularly to Lena
Palmer, since Reggie’s Ming porcelain purchases seem to
have quite a robust character to them, particularly the late
Ming ceramics. For the same reason, Lena may have been
influential in the decisions to buy some of the particularly
fragile and elegant Qing dynasty famille rose and famille
verte pieces for the Collection, such as the ‘birthday’ plates,
Bonhams Exhibition Catalogue nos.12 and 19, and the
‘ruby-back’ dishes, Bonhams Exhibition Catalogue nos.18
and 20. This taste for delicate painted enamels created
in 18th century China was shared by the Palmers’ fellow-
collectors Alfred and Ivy Clark, another ‘husband and wife’
team, who also purchased finely enamelled Qing porcelain to
complement their early Ming blue and white.

Early Chinese ceramics seem to have been of less interest
to the Palmers than to some of their contemporaneous
competitors, notably George Eumorfopoulos (and latterly
Lord Cunliffe). However, good pieces were acquired from
time to time. Reginald bought for £140 number 101 in the
Bluett November 1927 exhibition entitled Early Chinese
Works of Art, a large (23cm) Tang dynasty jar and cover
with splashed sancai glazes. This must have been part of
Captain Collins’ consignment no.41, which had been sent
Reginald Palmer, 1918 from Beijing in August 1927; it was later sold at Sotheby’s in
May 1968 for £3,800.
Nearly a decade later, in January 1936, the Palmers bought
sold; in May 1937 again at Sotheby’s when the legendary several pieces at the Bluett exhibition: A Collection of fine
sale of the Chinese collector dealer Wu Lai-Hsi was held; and Old Chinese Jade Carvings, Early Glass and Pottery and
at the first of the sales from the collection of Major Lindsay F. Porcelain. Among these, a large Dingyao saucer dish crisply
Hay, again at Sotheby’s, in June 1939. Looking through the incised on the front with a coiling three-clawed dragon cost
list of purchases which the Palmers made at Bluett, it is clear them £65. This had been consigned to Bluett by Abel William
that they maintained a very high standard of selection, while Bahr (1877-1959), another of those interesting characters
they continued to search for additions to the fine display they among the dealer/collectors active in Chinese art during the
had created at the family home, Hurst Grove, a few miles east mid-20th century. A good example of this particularly popular
of Reading, where they began to attract regular visits from Dingyao design, with the energetic dragon coiling around the
dealers, collectors, and academic experts. whole dish, it left the Collection and returned to Asia when it
was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong on 29 September 1992 for
Several significant Palmer pieces were lent to one of the £158,000 (lot 452).
widest-ranging of all OCS Exhibitions, The Arts of the Ch’ing
Dynasty (1964). Another purchase at this 1936 exhibition was a handsome
and large early 15th century dish (43cm diam.) representing
Several others were chosen to illustrate the three-volume a fine addition to the core early Ming blue and white section
ground-breaking study, Chinese Art: The Minor Arts which of the Collection. This dish bore a particularly attractive
R. Soame Jenyns and William Watson compiled and first decoration of three chrysanthemum-heads within a bracketed
published in 1963. So-called ‘Beijing enamels’ and ‘Canton border and scrolling peony around the well. In January 1936,
enamels’, Qing dynasty sheet-copper-based vessels brilliantly this dish cost £37.10s. When it came up for sale at Sotheby’s
painted in opaque coloured enamels, were recognised as a in November 1962, Bluett hoped to be able to buy it back for
particular strength of the Collection, and three were illustrated £1,500. Sadly this was not to be the case: Sparks strongly
in The Minor Arts, vol.2 (nos.114, 115 and 120). Among outbid them, paying £2,600.
those lent to the The Arts of the Ch’ing Dynasty (1964) were
two splendid Canton enamel panels with relief decoration Few of the handsome Qing dynasty enamelled porcelains
(nos.353a, 353b); and no.341, a small but outstanding in the Palmer Collection were bought from Bluett. The
long-necked faceted vase enamelled with particularly fine fine ruby-back famille rose dishes in Bonhams Exhibition
vertical landscapes, with blue-enamel Qianlong mark and of Catalogue, nos.18 and 20, came from Mallett’s and Spink’s.
the period; this had been bought from Bluett in June 1935 The magnificent large famille rose globular vase, tianqiuping,

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