Page 94 - Bonhams Asian & Chinese Art November 2018

The Oliver Robert Coales Collection

(lots 251-284)

he wrote ‘A gang of about 70 men climbed into the compound and
looted everything of value, and then took Mr Moore away in his
pyjamas ... we are in touch with the brigands and it may come to
paying a ransom’.
On leave in 1910 he travelled with ponies and pack animals from
Ichang (Yichang) to Kashgar (Kashi), traversing Sechuan (Sichuan),
Kansu (Gansu), Eastern Turkistan (Xinjiang), and the Gobi desert.
He crossed into Russia and made contact with the Trans Siberian
Railway. 153 photographs of this journey were donated to the Royal
Geographical Society and a short record of it, with the map he
produced, was published in their Geographical Journal in 1912.

In 1916/17, whilst stationed at Tachienlu/Dartsendo (now Kangding),
he undertook a four month expedition through Eastern Tibet, seeking
out the less travelled roads, and mapping the country. He gave
a lecture on the journey to the Royal Geographical Society, when
on leave in 1919, and wrote a paper: ‘Economic Notes on Eastern
Tibet’. Lecture and paper were published in the Geographical
Journal, the latter with his large map. His official report of that
journey was published for the first time in 2003 in The History of
Tibet, edited by Alex McKay, and is now part of the regular study of
Tibet in that period.
Writing to his brother Dennis about this expedition he recalled visiting
Mr. and Mrs. Coales and their household, the Consulate Garden, the ruined lamasery of Geden Jampa Ling (Dge-lDan Byam-Pa gLing)
Changsha, Hunan, China, 1925. above the town of Chamdo (Qamdo): ‘Nothing of interest remained
except some fading frescoes on the walls and hundreds of little clay
images which the lamas press in moulds and which had burnt to
OLIVER ROBERT COALES, DIPLOMAT. BORN 29 MAY 1880, terracotta by the fire. I obtained some good specimens’. Also at
LONDON. DIED 26 AUGUST 1926, CHANGSHA, CHINA Chamdo: ‘I was ... able to buy two rather nice inlaid iron wine pots
of local manufacture and some ornaments’. For ‘wine pots’ read
Oliver Coales from early childhood wanted to travel, and would ‘chang jugs’. He collected another one somewhere, for two remain
often be seen, stretched on the floor, his head in his hands, studying in the collection, whilst one was donated in 1928 by his widow
a map. His career in the British Consular Service in China amply Marjorie to the Victoria and Albert Museum, on display now next to
fulfilled his dreams. items from Lord Curzon. The twelve thangkas are likely to have been
collected in Eastern Tibet during this period.
His obituary in the Shanghai Times included the following:
‘Mr Coales’ ... journeys rank as a definite contribution to the annals of He worked in Peking (Beijing), Canton (Guangzhou), Chefoo (Yantai),
exploration. His great interest in Chinese antiquities was evidenced Shanghai, Newchwang (Yingkou), Wuchow (Wuzhou), Tachienlu
by the many curios which adorned his house, relics picturesque and (Kangding), Chungking (Chongqing), Mukden (Shenyang), Foochow
fantastic, showing him to possess the true spirit of the collector’. (Fuzhou), Tengyueh (Tengchong) and from 1924 in Changsha, Hunan,
where he was British Consul, having been promoted to that rank in
1919.
At 20 he was the youngest that year to pass the Consular Service
exam for ‘China, Japan and Siam’, and became a ‘student In 1924 he married Marjorie Wycliffe Russell, and in 1925 they had
interpreter’, the first rung on the ladder. His sister Ellen writes: a son, Robert Francis Coales. Their happiness was short lived, for
‘before leaving England he had to learn to ride, as the Minister in less than a year later he was taken ill one evening with streptococcal
Peking thought it undignified for the student interpreters to fall off meningitis, and was found dead in the morning. The tributes to him
their ponies on the way!’ This skill stood him in good stead, for soon at his funeral and afterwards showed him to have been a charming
he began to go on long journeys within China, riding a pony and and popular man, one who would be much missed.
accompanied by servants and pack animals.
His collection of artefacts has been in the family attics for decades,
Posted to Peking (Beijing) in 1901, he saw the aftermath of the and his grandchildren have decided to sell most of them, keeping
Boxer Rebellion, the return of the Emperor, and the funeral of the some as mementoes, together with his journals, letters and
great Chinese statesman Lee Hung Chang (Li Hongzhang). He lived photographs which have been newly rediscovered.
through the revolution of 1911, and the turbulent times that followed.
Life was dangerous – once a battle between rival Chinese forces was
fought on his verandah. Another time a river steamer was caught Mary Christina Sybil Coales
in a fusillade between rival factions and the Captain killed – Oliver Granddaughter of Oliver Robert Coales
being expected to try that murder case. And shortly before his death 14 September 2018

92 | BONHAMS