Page 100 - Chinese Export Art Christie's New York, Jan 21, 2016

THE GERTZ HATCHER COLLECTION

THE BETTY GERTZ ‘HATCHER CARGO’ COLLECTION
In what became a landmark sale in Amsterdam in 1984, Christie’s offered Chinese porcelain from a 1640s
shipwreck salvaged by the then-unknown Captain Michael Hatcher. Several thousand pieces from the
sunken cargo of about 25,000 wares of historically important Transitional period porcelain were offered at
Christie’s that spring. In the audience sat three friends and fellow ceramics enthusiasts, Antwerp tastemaker
Axel Vervoordt, the late dealer/scholar David Howard, and Betty Gertz of Dallas. Betty and her oil
executive husband, Melvin, had long traveled widely in both Europe and Asia, where Betty’s interest and
knowledge in art and antiques grew, The result was not just a wonderfully eclectic and erudite personal
collection but also the 1979 founding of her legendary Dallas shop, East & Orient.
Betty’s ‘Hatcher Cargo’ porcelains graced frst her large Georgian style Dallas house (featured in Southern
Accents in March-April 2002) and more recently her stunning new Dallas house, tucked inside a walled
garden (and featured in Architectural Digest in December 2015). Both houses were collaborations
between Betty and Axel Vervoordt, who designed special white brackets to support the Hatcher blue and
white, shown against silver Chinese wallpaper in the frst house and in her vine-covered pool house in the
new house.
Now these appealing porcelain wares, made at Jingdezhen in the fascinating period before the Qing
asserted control over the kilns and then rescued from the sea in the early 1980s, have made their way
to auction again. As Dr. Julia Curtis wrote in “Transition Ware Made Plain: A Wreck from the South
China Sea” (Oriental Art, Summer 1985), “...the varied nature of the load provides ceramicists with
a comprehensive view of Chinese porcelain production in the 1640s. The ‘Hatcher Collection’ also
provides insight into the origin of styles in the era of Kangxi...”

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