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While walking home from work one evening, Peter Scheinman noticed an interesting storefront on
Madison Avenue: Augustin Tzen’s Chinese antiquities gallery. Inside the gallery were Chinese vases
similar to the lamps his mother, Hortense, had collected when he was a boy. With his curiosity piqued,
he stepped inside. Thus began a long relationship with Chinese ceramics, many evening “lessons” with
Augustin, and an incredible passion for collecting.
Initially Peter learned about Chinese monochrome vases, purchasing a few celadons, apple-greens and
yellow wares. Emboldened a couple of weeks later, he purchased a rather large very deep peachbloom-
style vase that he placed in his front entry. Soon after, he traveled to Baltimore to the Walter’s Art Gallery
to view the famous collection of peachbloom wares.
Peter returned night after night to study with Augustin, furthering his knowledge of the various periods in
Chinese history and the types of Chinese ceramics produced in those periods. He became knowledgeable
about the reign marks on the pieces’ undersides, to understand the imagery on elaborate pieces, and he
began to appreciate early ceramics. He fell in love with them all: Neolithic vessels, Han animals, Tang
ladies and horses, black and brown wares from the Song dynasty.
My father’s enthusiasm for buying became an obsession, with him often purchasing two or more pieces
a week. The hunt for a new treasure was mesmerizing, as each piece was carefully placed on a shelf in
his display cases. The cases were meticulously arranged and re-arranged. Everyone who came into the
apartment was treated to an incredible lecture on Chinese ceramics. Books were taken down from the
shelves in his library, auction catalogs attested to the latest sales of similar pieces, and he described each
piece in great detail. During his insatiable quest he met dealers, museum curators and other collectors
who shared his passion. Robert Mowry, who was the Curator of Asian Art at the Harvard University
Museums, Francis Klapthor, Asian Art Curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Andrew Kahane, and
Jason Kuo, and many others became both advisors and friends.

Nancy Scheinman-Wheeler

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