Page 35 - Christie's Irving Collection Lacquer Bronse jade and Ink March 2019
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“ We have enjoyed the activity of collecting as much as we
                                  have savored living with these works of art. Now the pleasure

                                  is ours of sharing our collection with the public.”



                                  FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING










                                  has beneftted their collection enormously.” In the years   The Irvings’ personal ties to dealers, curators, and
                                  that followed their frst purchase, the couple amassed a   fellow collectors grew in tandem with their collection.
                                  sizable grouping of sculpture, decorative art, ceramics,   Each work, whether of masterpiece quality or more
                                  and painting from China, Japan, Korea, India, and   modest value, was viewed as an opportunity to develop
                                  Southeast Asia. Poster described the “curatorial way” in   connoisseurship. Early on, Boney suggested that
                                  which the Irvings collected, taking into account factors   the couple ask themselves a simple question when
                                  such as condition, size, restoration, and visual impact   considering each potential acquisition: “Does it talk
                                  with the skill of seasoned experts. Former Metropolitan   to me?” At the heart of Boney’s query was a belief
                                  Museum of Art curator Martin Lerner remembered    in a kind of inefable, captivating quality that would
                                  that frst seeing the Irvings’ assemblage, in the 1980s:   run throughout the Irving Collection. “You look at
                                  “I knew I was in the home of serious and knowledgeable   something with your eyes,” Mr. Irving explained, “and
                                  collectors. I was surprised by what they had been    it’s a feeling that works its way into your brain.” The
                                  doing, by how much they had acquired, and by how   Irvings’ residences in Manhattan and Long Island
                                  good it was.”                                became repositories for an assemblage of Asian art
                                                                               that was at once historically important and profoundly
                                  Behind the Irvings’ commendable acquisition strategy   personal—a true dialogue between collector and
                                  was a network of dealers and experts that came to feel   collection. In Old Westbury, Mrs. Irving even created
                                  like family. Throughout their journey in collecting, the   an Asian-style garden, ensuring that her collecting
                                  Irvings were keen not only to acquire masterworks of   vision encompassed both indoors and out. Situated
                                  Asian art, but also to build enduring relationships. “They   amongst masterful Chinese scholars’ objects, Korean
                                  are friends,” the New York Times noted in a profle of the   lacquerware, Japanese paintings, and Indian sculpture
                                  Irvings and their circle, “whom the couple has collected   was the Irvings’ carved jade head rest—their very frst
                                  as passionately as they’ve collected art.” This earnest,   purchase from Boney that always retained pride of
                                  heartfelt approach solidifed the Irvings’ reputation   place. It was a reminder of how far they had come, and
                                  as cherished fgures in Asian art. Among their close   of the many friends they had made along the way.
                                  circle of dealer friends were Boney and Ellsworth,
                                  Roger Keverne in London, and Klaus F. Naumann in   TO OWN AND TO SHARE
                                  Tokyo. “The Irving Collection,” Anita Christy wrote in   Florence and Herbert Irving held an unwavering faith
                                  Orientations magazine, “is the culmination of three   in the civic power of art. As their private collection
                                  decades of collaboration between themselves and the   matured, so did their conviction that it should be
                                  dealers and curators who became their friends.” Mr.   enjoyed by the public. “In every collector there is a wish
                                  Irving put it even more simply: “If you have a serious   to own and a wish to share,” the Irvings noted in 1991,
                                  collector-dealer relationship it becomes part of your   “that are not necessarily incompatible.” In the galleries
                                  friendship. We never had a dealer who didn’t become    of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the couple saw an
                                  a friend.”                                   opportunity to change lives; through their generosity,








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