Page 349 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

1836

In addition to his skills as an inventor, Gruber had a true love of the arts
and started collecting fne Chinese and other Asian works of art in the
early 1950s. By the time of his death, he had amassed one of the largest
independent collections of Chinese pottery and porcelain in the United
States. He traveled extensively to the homes of private collectors, museums
and auctions in search of the fnest objects and along the way became close
friends with some of the world’s foremost authorities on Asian art, including
Sir Harry Garner, Margaret Medley and Patrick Donnelly. He is noted for his
independent personal projects for the View-Master, including Alpine Flowers
of the Western United States, Mushrooms in their Natural Habitats, A
Stereoscopic Atlas of the Human Anatomy, and his last work, Chinese Art in
Three Dimensional Colour, on which he partnered with Medley and Garner; 1836 (mark)
it was published posthumously by the Asia Society in 1969. All of these
projects refected Gruber’s passionate love of nature, beauty and fne art, and
have become themselves rare and precious in their own right.

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