Page 118 - Bonhams FINE CHINESE ART London November 2 2021

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF DOUGLAS SPANKIE,
FIRST SECRETARY AND ACTING CONSUL-GENERAL
IN SHANGHAI (1962-64)
1962-1964年英國駐上海一等秘書及代理總領事道格拉斯·史
本基舊藏
Lots 294 - 295

Douglas Spankie was one of an unusual and privileged Spankie was born in 1929 and posted to Shanghai
group of British diplomats who served Her Majesty’s in 1962. Returning to the UK in 1964, he just missed
Government in China between the time when the the extreme violence of the Cultural Revolution. During
Shanghai Consulate was officially closed in 1949, his tour, he was lucky enough to be able to share in
and when it formally reopened in 1985. Based in the the (admittedly restricted) social and cultural life of
diplomatic compound in Shanghai, during his tour he Shanghai, even though many of his diplomatic functions
was able to collect a small but interesting group of were exercised through Scandinavian diplomatic
paintings and works of art. He and his young family were intermediaries since the UK Consulate had no formal
permitted to visit other parts of China; his daughters position in the PRC. Nevertheless, some of the old pre-
remember travelling to Beijing to visit the Forbidden City, Revolution diplomatic niceties were still observed. Low-
and attracting great interest from the residents. The girls key celebrations to mark the Queen’s Birthday attracted
learned to speak fluent Chinese, the Shanghai dialect, Chinese government attendees and there was a vibrant
while Spankie spoke Mandarin. social life for the Western diplomatic community.

Sadly, Douglas Spankie died from cancer at the very
young age of 45, before his considerable talents as a
diplomat could be redeployed into a full ambassadorial
posting after he completed his tour in China.
116 | BONHAMS