Page 253 - Fine Chinese Art Bonhams London May 2018

Harry Geoffrey Beasley was a wealthy brewery owner whose
private collecting passion began when, aged 13, he bought
two Solomon Island clubs. In 1914 he was elected to the Royal
Anthropological Institute with which he maintained an association
until 1937. He and his wife, Irene, established the Cranmore
Ethnographic Museum in Chislehurst, Kent where they had moved
in 1928, compiling the Cranmore Index of Pacific Material Culture
based on James Edge-Partington’s Index for the British Museum
and forming a considerable library. Although the Beasleys collected
artefacts from all around the world – including Africa (particularly
Benin), North-west America and Asia - their main focus was
the Pacific. Objects were acquired from dealers, missionaries
and from, or in exchanges with, various museums. Beasley’s
comprehensive monograph on Oceanic fish-hooks was published
in 1928. The Cranmore Museum was damaged by bombing in
World War 2 and in accordance with Beasley’s will his widow,
Irene M Beasley (q.v), offered the first selection of the collection
(apart from a limited reservation for herself) as a donation to the
British Museum. The gift of several thousand items became fully
effective in 1944. Other named beneficiaries include the Pitt-Rivers
Museum, Oxford; The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,
University of Cambridge; and National Museums, Scotland.
H.G. Beasley (1881 - 1939)

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
女士藏品
273 * Y Ф
A RARE IVORY AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL-
EMBELLISHED HUANGHUALI BRUSH POT,
BITONG
18th century
The cylindrical vessel intricately inlaid with stained
ivory, mother-of-pearl and hardstone pieces,
depicting magpies and grasshoppers perched on
leafy gnarled branches and floral sprays beside
rocky outcrops, beneath flying butterflies.
14.3cm (5 5/8in) high.
£5,000 - 8,000
CNY45,000 - 71,000
十八世紀 黃花梨嵌百寶花石圖筆筒

Provenance: H.G.Beasley (1881-1939), acquired
on 5 October 1925, and thence by descent

來源： H.G.Beasley先生(1881-1939)收藏，購於
1925年10月5日；並由後人保存迄今

The present lot encapsulates the skill of Qing
craftsmen in inlaying a complex variety of semi-
precious coloured stones into a rich huanghuali
section. Compare with a related hardstone-inlaid
zitan brush pot, mid Qing dynasty, illustrated in
The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace
Museum: Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros
Horn Carvings, Hong Kong, 2002, p.291, pl.236.

A related hardstone and mother-of-pearl-inlaid
huanghuali brush pot, 16th/17th century, was sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong on 2 December 2015, lot 3472.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. FINE CHINESE ART | 245