Page 89 - November 2016 London Bonhams asian Art
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PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF Arthur’s personal interests extended to botany (he created and
DR ARTHUR SPRIGGS maintained a large ‘natural’ garden at his home); molluscs and snails
(an indefatigable field worker, he must have surveyed every square
LOTS 177-197 kilometre of Oxfordshire during his long but active retirement); and,
of course, Chinese porcelain, especially 17th century blue and white.
DR ARTHUR SPRIGGS (1919-2015) A keen supporter for many years of the London-based Oriental
Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, Arthur Spriggs Ceramic Society, he presented a ground-breaking lecture in 1965
was a distinguished medical scientist for much of his very long life. which documented certain types of Chinese and Japanese porcelain
He held a number of senior positions at Oxford’s Radcliffe Infirmary featured in Western paintings between AD 1450-1700. Published in
and Churchill Hospital where he lectured and published extensively the ‘Transactions’, Vol.36, it stimulated further investigation into the
in his specialist field of cancer research. His early published research handsome ‘vanitas’ oil paintings which greatly enhanced the houses of
was accompanied by illustrations of cell preparations carefully drawn successful Netherlandish burghers during the ‘Dutch Golden Age’.
(using a microscope) by his accomplished water-colourist wife Gereth.
Later in his career he pioneered the use of electron microscopy in the
observation of chromosome anomalies and the detection of cancers,
establishing the first regional screening service.
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