The Sir Joseph Hotung collection at Sotheby’s in London this December includes a pair of George III carved mahogany library armchairs by Thomas Chippendale, estimate £80,000-120,000 (one shown).
The collection, kept in Hotung’s London home, features Chippendale furniture and royal French silver which he paired with Impressionist art and, the area of his collection which went the deepest, Chinese works of art.
Hotung’s collections of jades and early Chinese blue and white porcelain will remain intact and have been gifted to the British Museum where the major gallery of Asian Art is named after him.
His passion for collecting was sparked in the early 1970s when a chance encounter – due to a delayed flight – led him to acquire a pair of perfectly matched Qing-dynasty white bowls from a gallery in San Francisco.
