Auctions 19 FROM BEIJING TO VERSAILLES


A family’s journey from China to Paris in the 20th century is told through the sale of the VWS Collection in Paris this December. It begins in the turbulent times of the late 19th/early 20th centuries in Russia’s Far East. In 1896, the Russian Empire began the construction of a railway line using a concession from the Qing-dynasty government from Imperial China aiming to link China with the seaport of Vladivostok and Port Arthur, which was then an Imperial Russian leased ice-free port. Te line consisted of three branches, from Harbin to Manzhouli, Suifenhe, and Beijing. Te Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), as it was known, was administrated from St Petersburg, from the city of Harbin, which grew into a major railway hub. Te CER created a shortcut to the


Trans-Siberian Railway, which started in the nearby Siberian city of Chita. Russians flocked to the border town of Harbin to take advantage of the rapidly developing area. Roughly 20,000 Russians had settled there by the early 1920s and the town became the focus for anyone wanting to seek out their fortune. By the time the Japanese had arrived in Harbin in 1932, most Jewish people had left for Shanghai, where they were joined by European Jewish people fleeing from Poland, Austria, and Russia. Tis family’s journey began in 1903,


as the Chinese Eastern Railway, the eastern branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway wanted by Russia, was completed. Fleeing, like others, a climate of political persecution and anti- Semitism in the Russian Tsarist Empire, the family settled in Harbin, the most northerly city in China and started to develop its businesses from 1906 onwards. A Jewish community was already developing in the area and would have seemed a natural choice. Like many others, the family was attracted to Harbin then a major economic and cultural centre in Manchuria. Te cosmopolitan city was already home to a large Jewish community. In Harbin, the father, a cultured, open-minded and multilingual man, felt at home and his early successes in business earned him respect in the community. However, after fleeing the


persecution found in European Russia, the Russia of the Far East was already beginning to be caught-up in messy international politics and the threat of war. In 1898, construction of the 880km spur line, most of which would become the South Manchuria Railway began in Harbin, leading southwards through Eastern Manchuria, along the Liaodong Peninsula, to the ice-free deep-water port at Port Arthur (Lushun City in China, Ryojun in Japanese), which Russia was fortifying and developing into a first-class strategic naval base and marine coaling station for its Far East Fleet and Merchant Marine.


Te Russo-Japanese


War (1904-1905) was fought largely over who would possess this region and its excellent harbour, as well as whether it would remain open to traders of all nations. Later conflicts were also partially due to the geopolitical sensitivity of the area – 1929 Sino- Soviet Conflict, and the Second Sino- Japanese War of 1937–1945. It


is to this turn-of-the-century


diaspora that the collector’s family belongs, from their first move to Harbin and later south to Shanghai, forced by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria to find a new, safer home in Shanghai. Inquisitive and cultured, the collector had a gift for languages and quickly met


Large celadon jade figure of a seated Buddha, Qing dynasty, 18th/19th century, est Euro 60-80,000 © Christie’s Images Limited 2022


White jade ‘Eight Immortals’ square box and cover, Qing dynasty, est Euro 50-70,000 © Christie’s Images Limited 2022


Large, pale celadon jade vase and cover, Qing dynasty, est Euro 120,180,000 © Christie’s Images Limited 2022


The collector and his family in China in the 1930s © Christie’s Images Limited 2022


This story begins in 1903 with the


rise of Harbin as a railway hub


White jade ‘longevity’ bowl and cover, lian, Qiang dynasty, est Euro 300-500,000 © Christie’s Images Limited 2022


success in business. He arrived in Shanghai in the 1930s and began to collect Chinese jade, porcelain and snuff bottles. His thriving business took him and his family all over Asia, especially Hong Kong, as well as to North America. Wherever the family would settle around the world, fine Chinese art always followed, like a bridge between East and West. Te collector’s son also contributed to expanding the collection, acquiring works from renowned English art dealers such as Spink & Son. Te collection is marked by the great number of extraordinary white, yellow and pale celadon jades, the imperial quality of which is a testament to the collector’s keen eye and in-depth knowledge of the medium. Tis collection of artworks have


remained, by descent, with the family heirs ever since. Rescued from historical events, these objects are like a bridge between the East and the West. Seemingly following the advice of historians, the collector is an example of the discipline of a traditional collecting philosophy, as described by the contemporary French historian Ivan Jablonka (b 1973): ‘Investigating, journeying, wandering,


discovering, meeting,


A collection of Qing dynasty snuffbottles from the VWS Collection, to be auctioned on 13 and 14 December, 2022 © Christie’s Images Limited 2022. Photo: Claude Germain


crossing, collecting


testimonies and documents, the desire to devote oneself and to learn how to look at things’. Tis collection, originally started in


Shanghai in the 1930s is characterised by the quantity and quality of the white, yellow, and pale celadon jades, whose imperial quality testifies to his particularly discerning and knowledgeable eye. Many of the jade pieces in this collection date from the Qianlong period, a highpoint of Chinese culture. With so many masterpieces, the collection on offer will potentially impress


even the most demanding


• On 13 to 14 December, Christie’s Paris, christies.com. Catalogue available


connoisseurs. In 1963 and 1964, a few pieces from the collection were offered at auction in London, the remaining entire collection (about 300 lots) will be offered for the very first time on the market in December, with an estimated total sale value of Euro 7 million.


ASIAN ART | NOVEMBER 2022


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