Page 18 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

prices he paid, was seldom more than superficial. John Pope explains, "the men who bought them [Qing porce-
lains] at astronomical prices were not collectors of Chinese porcelain at all. They were collectors of old master
paintings, sculpture, furniture, and the like. These porcelains were a side issue and were urged upon the collec-
tors by the dealers of the time as appropriate to the general ambiance in which the paintings and other works
should be shown." 2
At the turn of the century there was a concentration of great wealth in the hands of a few. America, with
its vast natural resources, produced new kings of ores, of oil, of railroads, of shipping. The income tax had been
declared unconstitutional in 1895. Wealthy Americans, no longer content to defer to Europe, began deliberately
and aggressively acquiring works of art for their own surroundings and for the museums they were beginning to
found in American cities. The growth of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston helped to spur American collecting. Two other key factors were the passage in 1909 of the Payne-
Aldrich bill, which abolished import duty on objects over 100 years old brought into the United States, and the
enactment in England soon thereafter of greatly increased death duties, which frequently forced British heirs to
raise cash by selling off ancestral collections.
Many of the major American collections of Oriental porcelains formed in these years—those of Frick,
Widener, Rockefeller, and Altman, for example—were predominantly of eighteenth-century objects. The expla-
nation lies in the provenance of these pieces. Large, established, homogeneous collections were being put on the
market in a series of important sales, and these became the basis for the newer collections. For example, in the
last two decades of the nineteenth century James A. Garland, a banker, amassed a huge collection of porcelains,
3
which he put on extended loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When he died in 1901 or 19O2, the collec-
tion was purchased by Henry Duveen for $500,000. Early the next morning J. Pierpont Morgan repurchased the
4
entire collection as a block. He also instructed Duveen to fill the gaps. Morgan died in 1913, and in 1915-1916 the
Morgan collection was divided, again through the offices of Duveen, among Widener, Rockefeller, and Frick.
Joseph Widener selected fifty-four pieces, for over one million dollars. 5
Some of the most expensive pieces were the large famille noire vases, which have now become contro-
versial (and consequently less expensive). 6 Henry Clay Frick had twenty-three of these pieces, Widener fifteen,
Benjamin Altman thirty-three; there were many in English collections as well. There are, however, some differ-
ences in emphasis between collections. The Frick collection is devoid of monochromes, while these wares are star
attractions in the Widener collection. The latter lacks blue-and-white, while the Altman and Frick collections
7
have many. The Altman collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has groups of monochromes to rival
those in the Widener collection. The Frick and the Widener collections have almost identical sets, or "garnitures,"
of enameled porcelain. The European names given to a number of the late wares and shapes betray their place in
the export trade, and in that, their reason for manufacture. Joseph Widener, like his father and peers, continuing
to collect in the grand tradition, was able to acquire Chinese porcelain of fine quality. Outstanding in quality and
quantity are the monochrome wares. They may also be outstanding among Qing-dynasty production. Their sim-
plicity, refinement, and technical perfection have continued to appeal, while taste has changed over the years in
regard to some of the enameled pieces. Since Peter A. B. Widener was one of the nine Founding Benefactors and
contributor of some of the greatest painting masterpieces in the National Gallery, it is fitting that all the dimen-
sions of his collecting efforts should be fully represented in its galleries. 8
Other collectors of roughly the same period acquired Chinese ceramics because it was a part of their spe-
cific interest in Oriental art. Charles Lang Freer, a pioneer connoisseur of Asian art, was one of them. Washington
benefits, additionally, from the National Gallery's Widener collection because it chronologically supplements the
Asian ceramics holdings of the Freer Gallery, across the mall. Although eighteenth-century porcelains of fine qual-
ity are included at the Freer, they are relatively few in number. During his buying trips in the Far East, Freer was

2 D E C O R A T I V E A R T S