Page 76 - Bonhams Chinese Works of Art February 2015 Knightsbridge

Mr Robert Everts

The Everts-Calvocoressi-Comnène
Collection: Chinese Art

Irène Logan’s parents, Robert Everts and Alexandra, née Calvocoressi-
Comnène, formed their collections of Chinese ceramics and works of art
during Robert Everts service as the Belgian Ambassadorial Envoy to Beijing
from 1910 to 1916 and again from 1920 to 1924. These included lacquer,
furniture, porcelain, carved jade and hardstones. The Everts-Calvocoressi-
Comnène collections included textiles of which a set of 8 kesi is now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum; and an album of Chinese decorative motifs
drawn by Alexandra Comnène-Everts, a talented artist and pupil of Anders
Zorn, is now in the British Library.
The collectors’ interest extended beyond Chinese Art and their discernment
in Mexican textiles and metalwork has also been recognised in museum
collections in England as in the Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico City.
Alexandra Calvocoressi-Comnène’s bridal tiara commissioned from Cartier
in Paris in 1913 is displayed in the Bollinger Jewellery gallery of the Victoria
and Albert Museum.

74 | Bonhams