Page 27 - For the Love of Porcelain

The Countess and

her Chinese Lions Although the subject of this article (ceramic models of Chinese lions) may seem a little

frivolous, it chimes well with the breadth of interests pursued by eva Ströber.
rose Kerr

For example, her 2011 catalogue Symbols on
Chinese Porcelain: 10,000 x Happiness and
accompanying exhibition at Leeuwarden,
introduced works of art in a manner that
was accessible to a diverse audience. This
‘popular’ subject was backed up by serious
academic research, and yet presented in a
way that people would find attractive.

In similar vein, I discuss porcelain figurines
in an old Swedish collection, that I recently
had the pleasure of cataloguing. 1 The
collection belonged to Countess Wilhelmina
von Hallwyl, who amassed nearly 1000
pieces of Chinese porcelain, alongside rich
collections of European paintings, ceramics,
silver, furniture, glass and textiles. She died
in 1930, and bequeathed her house in acquisition of Asian ceramics was in 1879, 2
central Stockholm and her entire collection and she continued to collect until her death Architectural lion with
to the Swedish state. in 1930. She travelled and purchased widely, a seated warrior,
Wilhelmina was born into the Kempe but retained a fondness for local sources, Qing dynasty,
family, a wealthy and entrepreneurial clan. chief among them the Stockholm auction 19th - 20th century,
Carl Kempe, famous for his collections of house Bukowski’s. Its splendid premises lay h. 44 cm,
Chinese ceramics and silver, was her first a few hundred metres from her front door, inv. no. XLVIII: VI:
cousin once removed. In 1865 she married and the Countess was a frequent visitor B.a.01
Count Walther von Hallwyl, and in 1883 there. In fact, most of the porcelain figurines
1 moved to Stockholm in order for the Count discussed in this essay were bought from
Pair of lion mounts, late to succeed his recently deceased father-in- Bukowski’s between 1906 and 1912.
Ming dynasty, law as head of the family-owned company,
16th–17th century, Ljusne-Woxna AB. Wilhelmina’s father left At this period Bukowski’s, like many other
h. 22.8 cm, a large fortune to his daughter, his only heir, European dealers, had just started to receive
inv. no. XLVIII:VII: and she used her inheritance to indulge antiquities that had come directly from
A.b.a.03 in her passion for collecting. Her first China. This was the era when Sweden became

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