Page 11 - Thornton Collection Chiense Ceramics HK Nov 2017

DR. JAMES D. THORNTON —
AN OLD-FASHIONED AMERICAN COLLECTOR
Dr. James D. Thornton, photograph taken circa 1942
詹姆斯•桑頓醫生，攝於 1942 年前後
Dr. James D.Thornton (b. 1921) is amongst the last of
a generation of serious American collectors of Chinese
Qing dynasty imperial porcelains. He was born in 1921
in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the son of a rural physician, only one trip to China, in 1981, and there he was able
and received his college degree from Louisiana State
University before going on to medical school at The
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. During
World War II, his service in the U.S. Navy as a young
medical officer brought him on station in Casablanca
and Rabat, Morocco, where he oversaw the treatment
of allied casualties during the North Africa campaign.
Dr. Thornton returned from the war to practice
medicine in Philadelphia and later in Chicago as a
company physician for the Pennsylvania Railroad. It
was during the 1960’s that he began his frequent trips
to New York and visits to the Gallery of Frank Caro,
successor to C.T. Loo in the U.S.A., where he was
first exposed to the Qing treasures that he so ardently
collected over a period of several decades. He enjoyed
to see collections in Beijing and Shanghai. In Chicago,
he was a longtime member of the collector’s group
“The Orientals” associated with the Art Institute
of Chicago. For over 30 years he generously shared
many of his best porcelains, including those offered
in this sale, with the public while they were on long-
term exhibition in the San Antonio Museum of Art
in Texas. Now in his later years, he has been watching
with fascination and incredulity the rapid growth of
the Chinese art market, and especially the popularity
of Qing enamelled and monochrome porcelains.
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