Page 102 - 2019 September 11th Bonhams Japanese and Korean Art NYC

DONALD HOWARD SHIVELY (5/11/1921-8/13/2005)

A founder of Japanese literary and historical studies in began building his own collection following service as a
the United States, Shively served for over forty years Japanese language officer in WWII and the completion
on the faculties of UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard. of his graduate studies at Harvard. At its heart are
He served, too, as Director of Harvard’s Reischauer Japanese and Korean ceramics.
Institute of Japanese Studies; a member of the
National Commission for UNESCO; Chair of the U.S. Shively was an authority on the urban life and popular
delegation to the Commission for U.S.-Japan Cultural culture of the Edo period (1603-1868). In a host of
and Educational Exchange (Department of State); celebrated publications, he explored the societies of the
and Director of the American Oriental Society. The kabuki theater and the licensed brothels as well as the
Japanese government honored Shively in 1982 with the histories of censorship and satire, urban administration,
Order of the Rising Sun. and commercial publishing. Much of his work explored
the subversion of Tokugawa law - against luxurious
Born and raised in Kyoto by missionary parents who consumption, erotic art, and scandalous news – by the
acquainted him with such eminent artists as Hamada resourceful writers and rising bourgeoisie of one of the
Shôji, Kawai Kanjirô, and Munakata Shikô, Shively world’s most vibrant urban cultures.

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A GLAZED PORCELAIN MOON JAR (DAL HANG-ARI) A large white porcelain jar of similar size (13 1/2in [34.3cm] high) with
Joseon dynasty, 18th century a more symmetrical profile was sold in Christie’s, New York sale 15
Thickly potted with a rounded lip to the flared neck, a full globular April 2016, lot 102. However moon jars sharing the irregular shape
body that slumps slightly to one side and a flared foot ring the Shively jar also survive from the 18th century : see the exhibition
surrounding the recessed base, the clear glaze showing a very pale Choson Paekja hang’ari [Special Exhibition of White Porcelain jars
blue-green cast with some patches of pale russet burn and covering in Choson Period] (Ewha Woman’s University Museums, Seoul, May
all surfaces except the foot pad. 1985), no. 8, p. 14 (31.5cm high); nos. 10 (45cm high) and 11 (44cm
12 5/8in (32cm) high high). See also the moon jar of asymmetrical shape (18in [45.7cm]
high), in the the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, published
and illustrated in Asian Art Museum of San Francisco: Collection
$20,000 - 30,000 Highlights (Tuttle, 2018), pp. 222-223 [The Avery Brundage
Collection, B60P110+]. Multiple views of the Brundage vase are also
Provenance: available on the museum website.
Property from the Estate of Professor Donald Howard Shively (1921-
2005), purchased in Seoul around 1965, by repute

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