Page 8 - The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part I

THE RUTH AND CARL BARRON COLLECTION

OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES: PART I

Carl and Ruth Barron Ruth (1916-2001) and Carl (1916-2014) were beloved members of the International
Chinese Snuff Bottle Society (ICSBS). Active, engaged and discerning collectors, the
Barrons amassed an impressive collection of Chinese snuff bottles in a period of just over
twenty years. After Ruth passed away in 2001, Carl continued collecting on his own,
meticulously cataloguing the collection in a database with photos and information on
each bottle.

Residing outside of Boston, the Barrons were fxtures in the Cambridge business
community, where they were very active in local philanthropy. A true American
entrepreneur, Carl started his own furniture-leasing business in 1938, after seeing the
diffculty his Harvard Business School classmates had in furnishing short-term apartments.
The frst business of its kind, his idea sparked an entire industry. Once married, Carl and
Ruth worked side by side. On his desk at his offce in the Barron Building in Cambridge’s
Central Square, Carl’s nameplate read, “Carl F. Barron, Assistant to the Boss.” Ruth’s
read simply, “The Boss.”

The list of their philanthropic contributions to the community is long and diverse, ranging
from founding faculty chairs at Bowdoin College and Cambridge College, supporting
academic studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, to creating the Barron Center for
Men’s Health at Mount Auburn Hospital, to funding prostate cancer checks for all the
police and freman in Cambridge and surrounding communities, and seemingly countless
more gestures of giving back to the community.

As collectors the Barrons explored many categories, including Wedgewood porcelain,
Japanese Meiji-period art, American and Moser glass and stamps. Carl’s passion for
snuff bottles came later in his life, but his enthusiasm for and dedication to the feld is
evident in his choice of bottles. The ICSBS annual convention in Boston in 2008 featured
a symposium on his collection, where Hugh Moss, Clare Chu, Robert Hall and Robert
Kleiner each selected a topic on which to speak, illustrating their points with choice
examples from the Barron collection. An exhibition of highlights from the collection
accompanied the symposium, some of which are included in this sale.

It is Christie’s great honor to present the Barron Collection of fne Chinese snuff bottles
to a new generation of collectors.

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