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Eastern Eyes: Sarah Wong celebrates
Eastern eyes
This year sees the centenary of the Oriental Ceramic Society which helped put the UK at the centre of East Asian art collecting. Sarah Wong reports on the men and women connoisseurs whose collections still inform sales today
Acentury ago the Oriental Ceramic Society (OCS) comprised of just a small coterie of like-minded collectors and curators, gathering after dinner to discuss ‘specimens’. Today, it is an international, highly-respected organisation with a wide-ranging programme of lectures, handling sessions, trips, regular publications and exhibitions.
A new exhibition this month celebrates the collectors who were the driving force behind the OCS, showcasing ceramics, which make up a large proportion, as well as bronze, jade, lacquer, glass, painting and sculpture from China, Korea, Japan and the Middle East.
GEORGE EUMORFOPOULOS (1863-1939)
Eumorfopoulos was the first president of the OCS from its establishment in 1921 until his death in 1939, as such he was described as not just the “life and soul but also the guiding hand” of the society. Though a successful businessman from a Greek Liverpool family, his true passion lay in art and collecting.
In the early 20th century, as a result of railway construction work in China, pre-Ming ceramics were arriving in Europe, much of which had never been seen in the West before. Eumorfopoulos became a pioneer in collecting Han, Tang and Song pieces.
To accommodate them Eumorfopoulos constructed a purpose-built museum onto his home on 7 Chelsea Embankment. His generosity in sharing his collection was well-known and many weekends were spent by Eumorfopoulos and his wife Julia (née Scaramanga), welcoming students of Chinese ceramics, as well as wellknown collectors and academics. Many of the early OCS monthly meetings and handling sessions took place in his home.
Opposite page Greenglazed stoneware meiping with large peonies, northern Song dynasty, about 1000-1100, Guantai, Handan, Hebei province, 39.8cm, from the George Eumorfopoulos collection, 1936, © The Trustees of the British Museum
Above The tycoon George Eumorfopoulos’ (18631939) true passion was ceramics
Left Interior of 7 Chelsea Embankment, home of George Eumorfopoulos, 1934
Right Porcellaneous stoneware jar with incised lotus decoration, Northern Song dynasty, 11th-early 12th century, Ding kilns, Quyang, Hebei province, © V&A, London
SONG COLLECTION
A Northern Song stoneware meiping vessel from the non-imperial Cizhou kilns, carved with large scrolling peonies and collected by Eumorfopoulos (left) is one of the stars of this month’s exhibition. Notable for its unusual bright-green glaze, Cizhou wares were largely unknown in the West at the time Eumorfopoulos was collecting and he was able to build a comprehensive group, much of which is now in the British Museum today – including this vessel.
Another strong area of his collection was Song dynasty Ding wares from Henan province – these highfired ceramics with their creamy tones were perhaps attractive to early OCS collectors because they closely resembled porcelain.
One of his examples (below), now in the V&A, is included in the exhibition. In 1934, as a result of the Depression, Eumorfopoulos was unable to donate his collection as he had intended, instead selling a great part of it to the British Museum and the V&A at preferential rates. His collection formed the foundation of their outstanding collections of early East Asian ceramics.
OSCAR RAPHAEL (1874-1941)
Oscar Raphael, a collector and amateur dealer, was an OCS founder member who was also briefly the society’s vice-president (1937-1940) and its president (1941).
He was said to have collected from a young age and, by the time of his death, had formed a collection of more than a thousand bronzes, ceramics, sculpture and jades. His measured style of collecting was very different in style from Eumorfopoulos’ comprehensive approach.
Part of Raphael’s collection would have been kept at his flat, 5A Mount Street, where his neighbour was another early OCS member, Henry Oppenheim (d. 1946). Raphael was a cousin by marriage to yet another OCS member and legendary collector, Sir Percival David (1892-1964).
This month’s exhibition includes two of Raphael’s objects. The first is a Song dynasty (960-1279) stoneware brown-black-glazed ‘leaf’ bowl, now in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum (below). The second is a Kashan stonepaste bowl from Iran dating to 1187 with a remarkable narrative scene, probably a poetry recital gathering (above right).
It depicts an important, perhaps royal, seated person surrounded by courtiers, while the poet or narrator on the other side of the tree is the focus of their attention.
This important bowl was bequeathed by Oscar Raphael to the British Museum, together with 60 other objects from the Middle East.
Raphael’s interest also extended to the collection of blue and white porcelain at the Topkapi Sarayi in Istanbul. On a visit to the city in 1924, Raphael acquired a facetted Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) vase decorated with dense panels of underglaze blue decoration (below). Raphael’s remarkable collection was later divided between the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the British Museum.
Top left Interior of 7 Chelsea Embankment, 1934, with a cabinet of Ding ware on the left, including what appears to be the Northern Song jar on the second shelf from the top
Top right Stone-paste bowl, attributed to the potter Abu Zayd Mina’i ware dated beginning of Muharram 583/March 1187 CE, Kashan, Iran, © The Trustees of the British Museum
Above Oscar Raphael (1874-1941), © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Left Brown-black-glazed stoneware tea bowl with leaf decoration, Song dynasty, 960-1279, Jizhou kilns, Jiangxi province, © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Right Underglaze blue porcelain vase Yuan dynasty, 14th century, Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Collectors, Curators, Connoisseurs, A Century of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1921-2021, including more than 100 objects from UK museums and from private members’ collections, runs at the Brunei Gallery SOAS, University of London until December 11. For more details and tickets go to www.soas. ac.uk/gallery. A catalogue is available to order from www.orientalceramicsociety.org.uk
Women collectors
While all the founder members of the OCS tended to be men of a certain class and standing, it appointed its first female president in 1978 with Mary Tregear, who was keeper of East Asian ceramics at the Ashmolean Museum.
The early volumes of the Society’s journal, Transactions, refer to some early female collectors including the Misses Alexander; Dame Alice Godman and her “magnificent collection of Near Eastern pottery” (1927-1928) and Mrs Carl Holmes (1928-1930).
More women joined the society after it expanded its remit in 1933 to include those interested in ‘Oriental ceramics’. Some were wives of founder members such as Mrs S. D. Winkworth and Julia Eumorfopoulos.
Other women joined with their husbands, but were, in fact, the driving force behind the collecting.
Above right Underglaze blue porcelain moon flask, bianhu Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1722-1735) Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province. By permission of the warden and the scholars of Winchester College
Left The Hon. Mrs Nellie Ionides (1883-1962) with her dog Clicquot, c. 1945
Below Porcelain stem cup with anhua, moulded and reserved decoration on an underglaze copper-red ground, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (14031424) Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, © The Trustees of the British Museum
Right Pair of painted enamel copper vases and covers, Qing dynasty, Qianlong marks and of the period (17361795)
Alice Sedgwick (1883-1967)
One such was Alice Mariquita Sedgwick (née Street, 18831967) who was the granddaughter of George Edmund Street (1824-1881) one of Victorian England’s principal architects.
She was a dedicated collector of East Asian art who started collecting in the 1920s, independently of her husband, Walter. She seems to have been the first woman to serve on the OCS council in 1935-1936, and completed her final term in 1960, when she was already 77.
Sedgwick had an outstanding collection of Ming ceramics, including a Yongle period (1403-1424) porcelain stem cup with anhua, moulded and reserved decoration on an underglaze copper-red ground that belonged to her and is now in the British Museum (above).
Another piece from her collection is the Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1722-1735) underglaze blue porcelain moon flask, bianhu, lent to the current exhibition by Winchester College .
When she bought this flask in 1937 it was thought to date from the 15th century but, by the time it was acquired by its next owners, the Duberlys, in 1951, it was recognised as an 18th-century version of a Yongle prototype.
Sedgwick was a collector of considerable acumen and taste. Combined with her scholarship, this allowed her to build a collection of rare quality, some of which was sold at auction, while much was also bequeathed to a number of galleries and museums.
Hon. Mrs Nellie Ionides (1883-1962)
Another notable female collector was Nellie Ionides, the daughter of Sir Marcus Samuel, the former Lord Mayor of London who founded the company that was to become Royal Dutch Shell.
Her second husband, Basil Ionides, was a noted art deco designer and architect and the couple shared a passion for the arts, becoming celebrated collectors and connoisseurs.
Her interests included Regency furniture, Meissen and Chinese porcelain, while he collected Chinese export porcelain. They were members of the OCS from 19451949. A pair of Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795) enamelled copper vases formerly within her collection (below) will also be on display this month.
