Page 20 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Junkunc Collection

Professor Alfred Salmony New York, NY February 17, 1950

Dear Professor Salmony:
I have your valued letter of February 10th and let me assure you that the pleasure of your visit was all
mine. As you know it is a great enjoyment to discuss and study these things with someone who speaks
the same language on jades and especially so in this difficult and unexplored field of which there is
nothing authoritative written to be guided by.
With best wishes
S. Junkunc, III

Alfred Salmony 教授 紐約 1950年2月17日:
尊敬的 Salmony 教授：

我已收到您2月10日的來信。請允許我表達對您到訪的極大榮幸。能與一位真正懂得玉器語言的人暢談及學習是多麼令人欣喜的事，特
別是這個品類如此的難懂且目前又尚無任何權威著作可供參考。

順頌商祺
史蒂芬•瓊肯三世

Alfred Salmony (1890-1958), Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University since 1938,
was one of the leading international authorities on the subject of early Chinese jades at the time, having
published Carved Jade of Ancient China in 1938. He was planning a two-volume history of Chinese
jade, to be entitled Chinese Jades of All Periods, when he visited Junkunc in February 1950 to examine
his collection of early Chinese jades. This meeting forged a strong friendship between the two men,
who shared a passion for the material and a desire to formulate a chronology for post-archaic jades, a
subject little understood at the time. For over eight years, Junkunc and the English collector Desmond
Gure (1905–1970) supported Salmony in the research and preparation of this book. Tragically, Salmony
died at sea whilst travelling to London on April 29th 1958, before the work was finished. The first half
of his book was published posthumously in 1963 and entitled Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty,
illustrating a number of works from both Junkunc and Gure’s collections (fig. 2).

到了1950年代，瓊肯先生的玉器收藏也同樣形成 的熱愛以及對梳理此一時期玉器的共同目標，很快便
了極大規模，從新石器時代至清，珍品琳瑯，一 發展成為摯友。在接下來的逾八年時間裡，瓊肯及英
覽萬象。紐約大學藝術學院的名譽退休教授Alfred 國藏家 Desmond Gure (1905-1970) 對 Salmony
Salmony (1890-1958) 是當時國際上最具權威的 的新書編著進行了鼎力支持。遺憾的是 Salmony 於
中國古玉專家之一。他曾於1938年出版《Carved 1958年4月29日在前往倫敦的船上不幸去世，故此
Jade of Ancient China》。1950年2月 Salmony 這部書最終並未能完成，但其第一冊後於1963年發
前往拜訪瓊肯並參觀了其收藏，之後便計劃編寫 行出版，更名為《Chinese Jade Through the Wei
一部關於中國玉器史的專著，共兩冊，時定名為 Dynasty》，其中即刊錄了數件瓊肯及 Gure 的玉器
《Chinese Jades of All Periods》。當時的學術界 藏珍 (圖二)。
對高古以後的玉器研究尚淺，故兩人懷著對中國古玉

18 JUNKUNC: ARTS OF ANCIENT CHINA II