.jpg)
The British Museum Spotlight Loan A Ming Emperor’s Seat exhibit was originally part of the Sir Percival David collection. Sir Percival David (1892-1964) was an avid collector of Chinese ceramics. He was one of a small group of collectors to understand Chinese language and study Chinese culture. His work took him to China, Hong Kong and Japan. He was the chief instigator of the Exhibition of Chinese Art in London in 1935, as well as making generous donations to the Palace Museum in Beijingand raising money for China during the Second World War. The Sir Percival David collection that he generously presented to University of London and now shown at the British Museum has been described as one of the finest private collections of Chinese porcelain in the world.
Sir Percival was born in Bombay, and was the eldest son of Sir Sassoon David, owner of Sassoon, J.David & Company, which had with interests in banking, textiles and the Indian opium trade. The company developed into a leading cotton supplier and opened branches in Hong Kong and Shanghai in China and Kobe in Japan. Sir Sassoon David was a member of the community of Baghdadi Jews who lived in Bombay from the late 18th Century into the 20th Century (Wikipedia). He partly financed the construction of the Gateway of India.
As a young student at Cambridge, Sir Percival fell ill and went to stay with a friend in the south of England to convalesce, and happened to notice a Chinese vase on the mantlepiece. He fell in love with it and this was the start of a life-long passion. Sir Percival went to China to study art and helped stage an exhibition in the Forbidden City in 1925, donating over $6,000 towards the cost. In 1926 Sir Percival became the Chairman of Sassoon J.David and Company Ltd. Company business took him to China where he also collected fine porcelain. In 1927, he bought 50 items that originally came from the imperial collection then being held by the Yuin Yeh bank as collateral for loans.
Sir Percival was thechief instigator of and director of the Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy in London in 1935-6. The other committee members were, Robert Lockhart
Hobson (1872-1941), George Eumorfopoulos (1863-1939)and Oscar Raphael(1874-1941), all of whom were well-known collectors and curators of Chinese ceramics. They visited China to consult authorities about the selection of the exhibits, which included paintings, porcelains, bronzes, sculptures, silk tapestries and jades from the national collection. The British cruiser Suffolk transported 93 cases of art objects from the Forbidden City to London (The Evening Telegraph 12 July 1935). At this time, government and private property was not allowed to leave China unless there was a guarantee of its return(The Shields News 9 Feb1935). Sir Percival’s contributions to the exhibition were second only to those of the Chinese government.
The exhibits were not unpacked until Chinese officials arrived to supervise in September. This was the occasion of the photograph showing Sir Percival David (circled) with the Chinese Special Commissioner,Dr F.T.Cheng, and two assistants. This was the first time people in Europe had been able to enjoy a comprehensive view of Chinese culture from the earliest times until 1800. One of exhibits,Ten Thousand Milesshowing the River Yangtse,was 38 feet (about 13m) long. The exhibition opened in November and there was such a big turn-out for the inaugural lecture by Sir Percevalthat scores had to be turned away (TheYorkshire Post 30/11/1935).
The 37 donors to the Chinese Art Exhibition held at the Manchester Art Gallery in 1936 included Sir Percival David, George Eumorfopoulos, Oscar Raphael and Prof.W. Perceval Yetts (compiler of the Eumorfopoulos collection catalogue).
Sir Percival was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and placed under house arrest in Shanghai for nine months. During his internment he contracted a degenerative illness, which ultimately brought his life to an end at the age of 72.He had givenhis entire collection of Chinese ceramics and library of works on Chinese art to London University (Coventry Evening Telegraph 10 Oct 1964).Some of the most famous objects area pair of inscribed late Yuan dynasty blue and white vases,the oldest dated examples of their kind, from 1351 AD.The Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies at the British Museumshowssome 1,700 examples of the finest Chinese ceramics on loan from the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art.
Acknowledgements
This account of Sir Percival David has been compiled using information kindly supplied by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Head of China Section at the British Museum and Curator of the Sir Percival David Collection, and from University of Manchester doctorate Lewis Ryder, from the entry for Sir Percival David in Stacey Pierson’s Collectors, Collections and Museums: the Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain, 1560-1960 (Oxford, Peter Lang, 2007) and from entries in the British Newspaper Archive. None of the sources are responsible for any errors in this text, for which the writer alone is responsible.
Black and white image from … showing Sir Percival David (circled) with representatives of the Chinese government at the unpacking of exhibits for the Exhibition of Chinese Art in September 1935. Image from The Sphere (21 September 1935) accessed through the British Newspaper Archive
One of the treasures exhibited at the Royal Academy, a porcelain Ming dynasty ‘sancai’ wine jar decorated with peacock and peonies from the Sir Percival David Collection. Imagefrom The Illustrated London News (7th March 1936)accessed through the British Newspaper Archive.