Page 32 - Bonhams Cornette Saint Cyr, Property from the estate of Jean-Pierre Rousset (1936-2021)

Jean-Pierre knew how to find moments of calm in his house in It was not until 1918, with the eldest son Robert, that the family
Cannes where he would spend his days reading, gardening and business became more professional and international. Passionate
engaging in sports, like his father. about being free and independent and eager to travel the world, at
the age of 17 he joined the French merchant marine as a telegraph
operator on board the repair ship Vulcain. In 1919 he voyaged to
Benares, Angkor and Peking, which he discovered with wonder.
The visit to the Forbidden City with the great Swedish scholar Osvald
Sirèn (1879-1966) was a turning point. On his return to France, the
immediate success of his first purchases in Asia led him to abandon
the navy to devote himself exclusively to the Asian art trade in 1924.
His niece Anne-Marie recounts in the same diary addressed to her
grandson, an anecdote that Robert had told her: "Between two of
my trips, a friend of my father's - a collector - came to the house
and noticed with interest the two objects I had brought back from
China. Particularly interested by one of them, he asked how much I
would be willing to sell it for. Caught off guard, I quoted a price ten
times higher than my purchase price. The deal was done. I realised
then that there was a lot of money to be made in the antique trade”.
Already equipped with a keen eye, wishing to continue his distant
travels in Asia and with a growing passion for trading in works of
art, he decided to make it his profession. On the one end, he kept
his father's gallery stocked with works bought directly in Asia. The
names of his sellers - Mr. Pila, Minister Plenipotentiary in Siam - or his
buyers - Otto Burchard (1892-1965) – were impressive.
And at the same time, he joined the gallery of the Compagnie
de la Chine et des Indes. Founded in 1917 by the Blazy brothers
and specialised in decorative arts, the shop was located near the
Place Vendôme on the first floor of a prestigious building in the
Rue de Castiglione in Paris. In charge of the company's business
development, Robert undertook receiving clients, taking care of
Louis Rousset at his home in Paris, 1911 sales, visiting competing houses, staying informed of the state
of the market, following the main auctions and above all traveling
and spending time in the Far East to ensure the art purchases. He
His paternal grandfather, Louis Rousset (1878 - 1929), an insurer by became the preferred supplier of the gallery, which he bought with
profession and a lover of Asian art, began trading in Far Eastern art Georges Vibert after the financial crisis of 1929. After opening a shop
in 1912. The stock of his gallery "Antiquités d'Orient, Art bouddhique, on rue Saint-Georges in the 9th arrondissement in 1929, then in
L. Rousset”, located at 13, rue des Arquebusiers in the 3rd 1931 on rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement under the name
arrondissement in Paris, had 967 pieces in 1920, including porcelain, "Arts d'Asie", Robert moved the gallery in 1934 to the prestigious and
ivories, carpets, sculptures, jades, textiles, African masks, display historic address of 39, avenue de Friedland, a stone's throw from
cases... At first he bought works in Paris from his antique dealer the Arc de Triomphe. Organised on four floors, the Compagnie de
friends and at the Drouot auction house. la Chine et des Indes became a reference gallery for Asian art in the
world, just like the C.T. Loo gallery, which specialised in very high
quality sculptures from Cambodia, China, Japan, India, Gandhara
and South-East Asia, Chinese huanghuali furniture, which was very
popular in Ming and early Qing China, and traditional and modern
Chinese paintings - in particular those by Qi Baishi, some of whose
stock Robert had bought directly from the artist at $10 (US dollars) a
piece at the time of the Cultural Revolution.
The gallery was doing very well, the ledgers show a volume of
business that would make any art gallery today pale by comparison,
with dozens of sales every day. The gallery placed important pieces
in museums all over the world: a magnificent Khmer sculpture in
grey sandstone dating from the 11th century and representing a
seated Buddha sheltered by the snake king Muchalinda entered
the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in 1930 thanks to
the support of the William Rockhill Nelson Trust; the Royal Ontario
Museum University of Toronto acquired a 12th century Khmer
ceramic vase in July 1963. In order to meet the increasing demands
of the many buyers, Robert set up a team of six people: shop
assistants, a delivery person, a cashier and a manager, his sister
Suzanne (1906 - 1995). His adventurous spirit led him to travel all
over Asia in search of rare objects of museum quality.
Yue Bing and Robert Rousset in Peking, 1929

30 | BONHAMS