ACQUIRED FOR BRITAIN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18597, 7 January 1935, Page 11

ACQUIRED FOR BRITAIN

ART COLLECTION

RARE .TREASURES INCLUDED

The famous collection of Chinese am) Far Eastern works ol art which belonged to Mr, George Eumorlopoulos, of Chelsea, it was announced by cable ttiis week, has been acquired xor the nation’bv the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum jointly. The Eumorfopoulos collection has long been famous among connoisseurs tlie world over, and provided almost a majority, of the color and monochrome illustrations for the article on Chinese pottery and porcelain in tile last edition of t,he Encyclopedia Britannica. Iu June, 1932, Mr. Eumorfopoulos opened his house at 7 Chelsea Embankment, London, to the public for two days in aid of a fund to help the victims of disastrous Hoods in China. “To those who know the Eumoriopoulos collection, the name is enough to suggest tho richness of Lite opportunity, said the Times in a preliminary article, “to those who do not it is not easy to convey any idea of its importance except bv comparison. Formed during neatly half a century, it is in scope one ot the finest in the world, ranking with the great public collections in Germany, Sweden and America, and in (quality) notably iu the lino wares of the Sung period, it is unexcelled anywhere. Some of llic best examples of Oriental art in our museums, including the noble Chinese fresco of three figures at the British Museum, have been given or lent to them, by Mr. Eumorfopoulos, and his collection as a whole has inspired the finest illustrated catalogue of the subject that has ever been published. “’Those who have yet to learn what Chinese art of the, best periods, iu pottery, porcelain, painting and sculpture, really means may bo envied this first introduction lo tho subject. Without any special knowledge required there is something to gratify every kind of taste, for nobility of conception and purity and simplicity of form, in the earlier works, and for decorative richness and ingenuity of craftsmanship in the later, from the Ming period onward.” . .

The collection comprises early Chinese fomh wares, from the third to the ninth century, A.D.—horses, camels, dancers and athletes in pottery; Sung potteries with lovely simple shapes and exquisite self-colored glazes; Ming wares in glorious colors and rich patterns; 17th and 18th century porcelains, remarkable for technical perfection and delicacy of ornament ; landscape and figure, paintings on silk of the 12lh and 13th centuries; later pictures ou other materials; sculptures in stone and bronze, jewellery and ornaments.