Page 14 - SOtheby's Hong Kong Fine Chinese Art May 2018

FOREWORD

The acquisition of ‘Scholar’s Items’ for the dictated a yearning to become as closely associated
Peony Collection began in the mid 1970s. There were as possible with such studious appreciation in a
keen collectors who were well supplied by a relatively tradition which by the 1970s was 1,500 years old.
small number of specialist dealers in Hollywood In all collecting there were excellent
Road and also in the Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha opportunities which were taken advantage of.
Tsui. Travels in the region also turned up scholar’s There were of course also occasions – fortunately
items which in those days were not really noticed limited – where hesitation was a fatal diversion from
by collectors and – strangely in many ways – there acquisition because after due cogitation and return
was no real collectors’ interest or passion for the for purchase the piece had gone. There were also
arts in China itself where so much of the country other possibilities of ‘losing’ a piece. This was even
was principally concerned in the 1970s and early the case to the point that a particular piece was
1980s both with the dead hand aftermath of the acquired and, as was common practise, left with
Cultural Revolution with its violent destruction of the dealer to make wooden stand for it. On return
ancient things and was also unavoidably focused to collect the piece after the appointed time for
on its own extreme poverty. The huge changes in making the stand it was not the happy moment to
China since then have brought Chinese collecting be informed by the dealer with a certain amount of
back to a vigorously renewed full circle enthusiasm pseudo distressed hand wringing that the piece itself
in competition with Hong Kong and wider world was ‘lost’. The dealer in question put all blame on
collectors – the 1970s seem a very long time ago. the stand maker who was not directly accountable
But then collector interest was reserved to Hong to the collector and whose alleged ‘negligence’ was
Kong and through Hong Kong to tightly focused the cause of the ‘loss’. In fact the strong suspicion
dealers in Europe (particularly London and Paris) was that while the piece was still with the dealer
and in New York and San Francisco in the United prior to collection by the stand maker an alternative
States. customer came, saw the piece, enthused over it and
In those days Hong Kong was a low profile the dealer sold it to him! – of course at a huge mark
city. The towering buildings of today did not exist up from the original contracted sale price.
and the entire thinking of the local community was The Chinese scholar contentedly positioning
much less obsessed with property development and himself in contemplative pursuit of literary
manipulation although this was beginning. accomplishment in poetry and calligraphy
Accordingly, through developing relationships necessarily equipped himself with the tools of the
with the few dealers in Hong Kong’s Hollywood Road trade basically meaning production of the “Four
and Ocean Terminal very interesting acquisitions Treasures” of the studio. Very careful and scholarly
of Scholar’s Items of all kinds could be made. A appreciation of all the aids to scholastic production
particular focus was rare woods and bamboo but had throughout history developed in themselves
other materials were also important ranging from increasing skill and beautiful work and it was in a
jade, through ceramics to bronze and lacquer. To spirit of appreciation of such things that the Peony
be interested in the peaceful discourse of scholars Collection extended itself to and around them for
in the manner of the AD 353 Six Dynasties Lanting a forty year zeal of which some of the fruits are
Gatherings in the Orchid Pavilion near Shaoxing present in this sale.

The Keeper of the Peony Collection
Hong Kong, April 2018

12 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比