Page 23 - Irving Collection Part II Chinese Art

“ In every collector there is a wish to own and a wish to share
that are not necessarily incompatible. We wanted to share our

collection with the greatest number of people, and for that,
there’s no place like the Met.”

FLORENCE IRVING

A DIALOGUE WITH ASIAN ART It was Boney who sold the Irvings their frst substantive
The success of the Sysco Corporation allowed the work of Asian art: a Chinese jade head rest, timelessly
Irvings to adopt a spirited ethos of living, one founded elegant in its form, that appealed to Mr. Irving “simply
upon the principles of helping others and embracing fne because,” he said, “I liked the feel of the stone.” Works
art. For the Irvings, it was not enough to live surrounded of fne sculptural quality would come to feature
by beauty; they felt obligated to share it with the world. prominently in the Irvings’ collection, underscoring their
Asian art, in particular, would become synonymous afinity for works that could be handled and appreciated
with the Irving name, as the couple came to amass one each day. “I love sculpture,” Mr. Irving explained. “That’s
of the United States’ foremost private collections of why the frst Oriental art we bought was jade, because
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian works. it was sculpture. Alice Boney understood that and
From childhood days at the Brooklyn Museum to seeing fostered that.” Boney’s reputation as one of the world’s
their own names inscribed on the Asian art wing of the foremost Asian art dealers was based on her uncanny
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Irvings’ passion for art ability to connect clients with works they truly loved. In
was a truly lifelong commitment. this way, she developed a close personal relationship
with the Irvings while helping them build their
The Irvings made their initial foray into collecting in collection. After Boney relocated her gallery from Tokyo
the 1940s and 1950s. The glassware Herbert Irving to Manhattan, the couple were able to see the dealer
acquired during the Second World War was joined by almost every week. “We would battle like crazy, but
additional glass pieces and “reasonably priced” works never seriously,” Mr. Irving laughed, “because we loved
by living artists. An eighteenth-century Chinese table, one another and everything she said came true.”
purchased in the early 1960s from the notable dealer
Robert Ellsworth, was a harbinger of greater things. Yet From their frst acquisition in Tokyo, the Irvings
the Irvings were initially, they later admitted, complete wholeheartedly embraced Asian art. Mrs. Irving began
novices in Asian art and its history. Indeed, it was not to study the history of Chinese art, ceramics, and
until the autumn of 1967 that they discovered the furniture at Columbia University, and attended lectures
possibilities of Asian art, when Mrs. Irving suggested a at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through annual
trip to Japan, and a friend encouraged the couple to visit visits to Asia and in conversation with Boney, Ellsworth,
the esteemed Alice Boney in Tokyo. “We ate lunch,” Mr. and other dealers around the world, the Irvings honed
Irving said of the visit, “and fell in love.” The couple were their unique connoisseurial vision—one greatly aided
immediately drawn to Boney’s gift for illuminating the by Mrs. Irving’s astute eye and enthusiastic scholarship.
beauty of Asian art, and spent the majority of their trip “They are always learning,” curator Amy Poster said of
with the dealer. “She was like a mother,” Mr. Irving said. the couple in 1991. “Florence never forgets the objects
“She really introduced us to Oriental art.” she’s seen…. The ability to act on what she has learned

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