Page 96 - Saturday At Sothebys Chinese Art

CHINESE WORKS OF ART FROM THE COLLECTION

OF STEPHEN JUNKUNC, III LOTS 1533-1548

There are a handful of names in the emigrated to Chicago, Illinois as a after having happened upon a book on
world of Chinese art that are inextricably young child, where his father Stephen Chinese art. It is perhaps no coincidence
associated with works of exceptional Junkunc, II (d. 1948), a tool-and-die that Junkunc’s initial collecting activity
quality. Stephen Junkunc, III is amongst maker, founded General Machinery & largely coincided with the establishment
these luminaries. The name itself is Manufacturing Company in 1918. The of the Chicago branch of the reputable
instantly evocative of a period during company specialized in the manufacture Japanese dealer Yamanaka & Co., Ltd.,
which some of the greatest Chinese of metal stampings for casket hardware. who opened a gallery at 846 North
treasures came to America. The With the outbreak of World War II, General Michigan Boulevard in 1928. Many of
Junkunc name today serves as one Machinery converted its shop for the war Junkunc’s early purchases came from
of the most important, and indeed effort and began manufacturing various Yamanaka, and before long, he was buying
desirable, provenances for Chinese aircraft parts, including B-29 hydraulic directly from the leading London dealers
art. Formed in America in the mid- spools on behalf of Ford Motor Company, specializing in Chinese art: Bluett & Sons,
20th century, by Stephen Junkunc, III who was sub-contracting work from W. Dickinson & Sons, H.R.N. Norton and,
(d. 1978) the Junkunc Collection at its engine maker Pratt & Whitney. of course, John Sparks, seeking fine
height numbered over 2,000 examples Alongside his role as manager and examples of porcelain for his collection.
of exceptional Chinese porcelain, part owner of the company, Stephen The collection of Chinese ceramics
jade, bronzes, paintings and Buddhist Junkunc, III spent his free time forming from the Junkunc Collection ranks
sculptures; serving as a testament to an extraordinary collection of Chinese amongst the greatest assemblages of
a period of unprecedented wealth of art. With an unabated hunger for porcelain ever formed in the West. The
Chinese material available in the West, knowledge, Junkunc was a voracious collection included two examples of the
as well as to an astounding intellectual reader who studied the Chinese fabled Ru ware, of which only eighty-seven
curiosity and the means with which to buy language and kept extensive libraries of examples in the world are known. These
internationally from the leading dealers in Chinese art reference books and auction two dishes represented two of the only
the field. catalogues at both his home and office. seven examples of Ru ware to have been
Stephen Junkunc, III was born in Junkunc appears to have made his first offered at auction since the 1940s. One
Budapest, Hungary circa 1905, and acquisitions in the early 1930s, apparently of the Ru dishes, purchased from C.T.
Loo in 1941, set a new world record when
it sold at auction for $1.6 million in New
York in 1992, and is today in the esteemed
collection of Au Bak Ling.
By the early 1950s, Junkunc had
amassed an impressive collection of
Chinese works of art which by then was
largely securely stored in the museum-
like environs of a subterranean bomb
shelter in the grounds of his home in
Oak Park, Illinois. In a 1952 profile in the
Chicago Tribune, the bunker is described
as storing a ‘priceless hoard’, with ‘shelves
weighted with priceless pieces of Chinese
art, prizes produced thru [sic] a span of
centuries. A record of a nation in tapestry,
bronze, jade, pottery, robes, and lacquer’.
Junkunc continued purchasing and
studying Chinese art until his death in
1978, whereupon the collection passed
to his son Stephen Junkunc IV and has
remained in the family collection.
Stephen Junkunc photographed with his collection, illustrated in The Chicago Tribune, 7th September 1952
史蒂芬•瓊肯三世與其收藏合照，刊於《芝加哥論壇報》，1952年9月7日
94 SOTHEBY’S SATURDAY AT SOTHEBYS: ASIAN ART