19th Century, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts, Jewellery and Wine
Live Virtual Auction, 11 - 13 April 2021
Oriental Works of Art
Lot Estimate
ZAR 50 000 - 70 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 318 640
About this Item
A pair of Chinese famille-verte bowls, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1662-1722
each square tapering body with canted corners enamelled to the centre with a seated sage at rest, enclosed by a black and green diaper border highlighted with prunus, peony, lotus and chrysanthemum blooms with alternating auspicious symbols against a yellow ground, the reverse enamelled with four lappet-shaped panels enclosing courtiers at various pursuits within balustraded gardens enclosed by cell-diaper brocaded panels with cloud motif, raised on a low foot, underglaze-blue double-ring mark, underglaze-blue mark of commendation, Bernheimer Collection label, Myron S Falk Collection Greenwich Conn. label, 10cm high
(2)
Notes
"Myron S (Johnny) Falk Jr and his wife Pauline Baerwald Falk were active philanthropists, prominent Asian art collectors and were both active in the Jewish and Art communities.
The purchase that started their collection happened while on their 1935 honeymoon in the English countryside where they came upon two blue-and-white Ming Dynasty porcelain dishes. Later, taking one of the inaugural Pan Am Clipper flights to China in 1937, their collecting began in earnest. There are home movies in the collection taken by Johnny that document their trip to a largely untouched China. However, because China was closed to the West starting in 1950, they were unable to return until 1979.
As collectors, the Falks made a good team. Due to his engineering background from school, Johnny became an expert on firing techniques and glazes; while Pauline was known as the ''eye.'' Their fervent and long-term involvement in the Asian art community led them to become close friends with the biggest dealers in America and Europe.
Johnny and Pauline collected wares of the Song dynasty, archaic bronzes, jades, stone sculptures, several fine Ming and Qing porcelains, Korean ceramics, and nearly 100 Japanese paintings. After more than fifty years collecting their art work totaled over 700 items.
Johnny and Pauline lent their artworks to museums, advised art institutions in the United States and abroad, and fostered the training of a new generation of curators, scholars and other professionals in the Asian art field.
Johnny was an investment banker, philanthropist and prominent collector of Asian art. He was a longtime trustee of the Asia Society and helped found the Oriental Art Council, Roebling Society of the Brooklyn Museum and Japan Society Gallery. [...]
Together they were strong supporters of the Asia Society, the Chinese Art Society, they helped establish the Friends of Asia House Gallery in 1971, and founded the Friends of the China Institute in America Gallery. They also established the "Archives of Chinese Art" in 1945 an important scholarly journal that is published today by The Asia Society as the "Archives of Asian Art," and are among the founding members of the Friends of the Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Friends of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum."
https://sova.si.edu/record/FSA.A2002.03?s=1060&n=10&t=C&q=engineering&i=1060
Provenance
Myron S Falk Collection, Greenwich, Conn, USA.
Purchased from Bernheimer Fine Arts Ltd, London-Munich, 32 St George Street, Mayfair, London, WIR 9FA, 15 November, 1993.
Property of a Connoisseur.
Other lots that might interest you
A Chinese blue and white scholar's bowl, Qing Dynasty, 19th century
ZAR 8 000 - 10 000
Three Chinese blue and white tea bowls, Qing Dynasty, late 19th century
ZAR 1 500 - 2 000
A matched pair of large Chinese famille-verte 'Yang Family' dishes, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1662-1722
ZAR 200 000 - 250 000
A Chinese famille-verte punch bowl, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1662-1722
ZAR 40 000 - 60 000
A Chinese famille-verte brushpot, bitong, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1662-1722
ZAR 40 000 - 60 000
A Chinese famille-verte brushpot, bitong, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1662-1722
ZAR 50 000 - 70 000
