Tales of a Diplomat – How Some of China’s Finest Art Found its Way to America

Sir Ronald Lindsay was appointed Ambassador to the United States in 1930. Both Sir Ronald and his wife were keen collectors of Chinese jades and, whilst working at the British Embassy in Washington, they found that their colleague, Miss Irene Boyle, shared this interest. Miss Boyle was employed as Social Secretary at the Embassy and was pivotal in organising the State Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Washington in 1939 - the first-ever visit to the United States by a reigning monarch - and later, in 1957, helped to arrange the visit of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip.

This mutual appreciation of Chinese art led to Sir Ronald and his wife gifting various pieces of their collection to Miss Boyle, including the bowls within this lot, which are pictured in the interior of her apartment, at 2500 Que Street, Washington DC, on a Christmas card sent around 1955.

 ^{A pair of Chinese pale celadon jade chrysanthemum bowls, Jiaqing (1796-1820). Estimated at £8,000-12,000 for our May Asian Art Sale}

On her death in 1966, another of the Ambassador's gifts, a celebrated Chinese Ming period jade horse, was sold by Spink to Mr Somerset de Chair of St Osyth Priory for £27,000, a world record price at the time.

We continue to invite entries of Asian Art for the sale on Wednesday 16 May - closing date Thursday 29 March.

To find out more about the forthcoming sale or to discuss potential consignments please contact:

Yexue Li

yexueli@sworder.co.uk

01279 81778

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