Page 70 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

The Property of a Lady 女士藏品
Lots 48 - 51

The Chanin collection of oriental ceramics was
assembled during the 1950s-60s by British-born
Philippine resident Arthur John Chanin (1914-1996).

Born in Manchester, Chanin began his working life as a
loss adjuster with Lloyds of London. In the mid-1930s,
he arrived in the Philippines where he spent most of
his working life. During the Second World War he was
interned in the Universidad de Santo Tomás, Manila.

In 1946, he incorporated the Domestic Insurance
Company of the Philippines, the first non-life company
to be licensed after liberation. He expanded into all types
of insurance adjustment work and became prominent in
the field of appraisal and quantity surveying.

He was active in the post-war reconstruction and
development of the country to which he was deeply
tied. He married in Manila, and his first child was born
there in 1950. In 1956, he co-founded The Asian
Appraisal Company, Inc., an offshoot of American
Appraisal, an independent, employee-owned
consulting firm established in America in 1896. As
Managing Director of The Asian Appraisal Group,
he built professional services across south-east Asia.
He established offices for Asian Appraisal in Manila,
Hongkong and Singapore, as well as services in
Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Djakarta, and Kota Kinabalu.
He became a senior member of the American Society of
Appraisers, and a member of the Incorporated Society of
Valuers and Auctioners, London.

During this time he began collecting Orientalia,
particularly ceramics. During the 1960s he took great
interest in the archaeological excavations in the region,
particularly in excavations that were supervised by the
National Museum of the Philippines. Ceramics unearthed
by these excavations, which included porcelain from
China dating from the 12th and 13th centuries AD,
revealed the extensive trade networks that existed and
the connections these made between people in the
region. He was often present at the excavations, which
he supported; he was a member of the Institute of
Philippine Culture, the Philippine Book Guild, and took
great interest in south-east Asian history, its origins and
its ceramics. He enjoyed living with the items that he
collected, in Manila and in Hong Kong from, among
others, S. H. Chan and Kowloon’s P.C. Lu Works of Art.

48
A blue and white garlic-head vase
Qianlong seal mark, 19th century
The gently rounded body painted in exceptionally
vivid blue of bright violet tone with three fruiting leafy
sprays alternating with three floral sprays, between stiff
lappets and ruyi-head bands, the slightly-splayed foot
with foaming waves and the garlic-head mouth with
five blossoms on a leafy meander beneath a band of
key-fret.
29.5cm (11 5/8in) high
£10,000 - 15,000
HK$120,000 - 180,000 CNY94,000 - 140,000

十九世紀 青花花果紋蒜頭瓶 青花「大清乾隆年製」
篆書款

Provenance: Arthur John Chanin (1914-1996), according
to the family acquired in the 1950s-60s, and thence by
descent

來源：Arthur John Chanin (1914-1996)，根據家族說
法，此拍品購於1950至60年代，並由家族繼承下去

66 | Bonhams