Page 63 - Six treasures of IMpeerial Art Sothebys Hong Kong April 3 2019

Fig. 2 Fig. 3
Guan lobed jardinière, Southern Song – Yuan dynasty Qingbai lobed jardinière, Southern Song dynasty
© Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei Excavated from a tomb dated 1205 in Liugongmiao, Zhangshu City,
圖二 Jiangxi Provence
南宋至元 官窰青瓷海棠式花盆 Courtesy of the Zhangshu Museum
© 台北國立故宮博物院藏品 圖三
南宋 青白釉海棠式爐 江西省樟樹市劉公廟南宋開禧元年
（1205年）墓出土
圖片鳴謝：樟樹市博物館

Museum, Beijing, published in Junyao yaji. Gugong Bowuyuan pieces were displayed. She described the collection as
zhencang ji chutu Junyao ciqi huicui/Selection of Jun ‘small, formed by two people with extremely good taste’. 5
Ware. The Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological The Japanese collector, connoisseur and antiques dealer
Excavation, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2013, pls 63 and 64. Sakamoto Gorō, is a true legend in the world of Chinese art.
Sir Percival David in his introduction to the 1952 Oriental His career, which spanned almost seventy years, made him
Ceramics Society exhibition on Ru and guan wares, lists the an authority in the field that was far beyond simply having
present guan jardinière as having ‘its opposite number in a good eye for art. Mr Sakamoto is remembered as an
certain similarly shaped vessels and their stands of Chün international treasure with the ability for divining the spirit or
ware, such as the well known example in the Freer Gallery’. 4 atmosphere given off by a work of art and detecting the true
nature of the object. 6
Apart from its imperial provenance, this jardinière was
formerly in the distinguished collections of Mrs Alfred 1 Transcription and translation of the poem is included in the British Museum
Clark (1890-1976) and Mr Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016). website https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ collection_online/
collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3180074&partId=1&people=16243
The former, married to Alfred Clark (1873-1950), the 9&sortBy=imageName&page=1 [Accessed: March 2, 2019].
British-American pioneer of music recording and cinema 2 Quoted in Chuogeng lu tongjian [General guidance on retirement to the
and manager of companies such as HMV and EMI, was countryside], Beijing, 1950.
an enthusiastic collector of Chinese ceramics and with 3 See Zhongguo Shehui, Kexueyuan Kaogusuo, eds, Nan Song guanyao [Guan
her husband formed one of the most important Western ware from the Southern Song dynasty], Beijing, 1996; Du Zhengxian, ed.,
collections in the early 20th century. Husband and wife were Hangzhou Laohudong yaozhi ciqi jingxuan [Selected masterpieces from
Laohudong kiln site, Hangzhou], Beijing, 2002; and Zhang Zhenchang, ed.,
both members of the Oriental Ceramic Society, with Alfred Nan Song guanyao wenji [A collection of essays on Southern Song dynasty
Clark on the Council of the society between 1934-1948, and guan kiln], Beijing, 2004.
lent many of their pieces to exhibitions including the Royal 4 Sir David’s introduction in The Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition of Ju
Academy of Arts in London in 1935-1936, and the Oriental and Kuan Wares: Imperial Wares of the Sung Dynasty, Related Wares and
Ceramic Society exhibition in 1952. Lady David (wife of Sir Derivatives of Later Date, London, 1952, p. 4.
5 Stacey Pierson, Collectors, Collections and Museums: The Field of Chinese
Percival David) is recorded saying how most of the Clark Ceramics in Britain, 1560-1960, Oxford and New York, 2007, pp. 171-2.
collection of Chinese ceramics was displayed in the living 6 Jeffey Hantover, ‘Sakamoto Gorō and the Art of Mekiki,’ in Chinese Art
rooms, with a ‘little room upstairs’ where their Song dynasty Through the Eye of Sakamoto Gorō, Sotheby’s New York, March 2015, p. 12.

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