Page 6 - Bonhams Catalog Cohen and Cohen Jan 24, 2023 New York

Joseph Joel Duveen, Baron Duveen (1869-1939) “Exhibition of Rare Old Chinese Porcelains” at Duveen Brothers gallery in New York, 1907.
National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG x28132

The Export Arts of China: Chinese Creativity in a Western Context

It is a particular pleasure to be introducing this auction of exceptional In the 1970s there were still many good London dealers handling fine
Chinese Export porcelain to Bonhams’ worldwide audience. We are Chinese Export art. Earle Vandekar, Marchants and John Sparks all
exceptionally grateful to Michael and Ewa Cohen for giving us the handled fine stocks of quixotic European-subject wares, large famille
opportunity to present it in New York, where a century ago some of the verte, famille rose and blue and white display garnitures, handsome
greatest American collectors like J.P. Morgan (1837-1913), James A. pairs of Export birds and animals and amusing human figures. And
Garland (1840-1900) and Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) were hungrily so did Michael Cohen, establishing a reputation which would grow
assembling wonderful collections principally of Chinese Export taste as his business continued to expand over 45 years, and attracting
ceramics. Their hunger was enthusiastically steered by Joseph Duveen to his Gallery (initially in Portobello Road, latterly with Ewa Cohen
(1869-1939) at his magnificent Fifth Avenue gallery towards the finest in Kensington Church St), every international collector interested in
examples of famille noire, famille verte, blue and white and of course the finest surviving pieces from the China Trade, while also annually
outstanding famille rose. Lots 99, 136, 125 and 72 respectively, in this displaying his finest exhibits at the great annual antiques fairs in
auction would have created great competition as Duveen tantalized the London and New York, where fine Chinese Export always attracted
competing buyers! very committed collectors, museum curators and decorators.

I have always felt that there is something special about the arts and Michael Cohen realized early on, as I did with my initial interest in
crafts of China made for ‘The China Trade’ to the West. When I joined European ceramics, that one feature makes Chinese Export art stand
the London auction world in the mid-1970s, the best Chinese Export out from the rest of the pantheon of Chinese art, and gives it for many
art was still often esteemed as highly as some of the best Chinese- Westerners (and, more recently, for Asian buyers) a unique appeal.
taste material. ‘Export’ objects such as ceramics, lacquer, glass This distinguishing characteristic is that Chinese Export represents
paintings and even fans were readily available to collect in the ‘70s, a fascinating artistic fusion, blending Western aesthetic tastes and
because many English and European country houses still contained the rhythms of polite society in Europe and East-Coast America with
the decorative vases, huge dinner services, pairs of decorative figures Chinese commercial manufacturing skills. The reason was the ability
and large jardinieres which had been bought new in the 18th century of Chinese craftsmen, principally based in Canton (and Jingdezhen
from luxury dealers and grand ‘Marchands-Mercier’ who dominated where the ceramics were created), to respond imaginatively to
selling Asian imports in fashionable London and Paris during the unlikely requests by western ‘Supercargoes’ (business managers
‘Ancien Regime’. The furnishings in public rooms of grand European on each East India Company ship) issuing orders to have all sorts of
houses could remain essentially untouched by new fashions for a very pieces manufactured. A 300-piece ‘armorial’ dinner service simply
long time; they often did, until a novel international demand (especially copying a book plate showing a strange medallion in the center, filled
from America during the late 19th century) began to generate very high with symbols that had no reference to traditional ceramic patterns
retail and auction prices for the finest pieces of un-regarded Chinese of dynastic China? Hundreds of thousands of folding fans painted
Export art which had arrived in the West almost two centuries earlier. with whimsical views of colorful Chinese families and landscapes
which bore no resemblance to reality, but were perfectly suited to
sophisticated social rituals in Europe, the discreet ‘language of fans’
to signal subtle messages? Snuff boxes, to hold expensive ground