To mark the occasion of The Fan Museum’s summer exhibition The Man with the Carnation, Colin Sheaf, Deputy Chairman of Bonhams and close associate of M. Gérard Lévy will give a lecture on a subject relating to a number of themes present within the Lévy collection.
Asian craftsmen in the 17th and 18th century responded in an imaginative and striking way to commercial opportunities presented by evolving Western taste in interior decoration, and especially to the growing enthusiasm for ‘Chinoiserie’. This talk explores this exotic yet fundamentally commercial Sino-European maritime relationship, illustrating some of the fine lacquers, ‘Export-taste’ ceramics, silks and wallpapers which the ‘Honourable East India Company’ regularly imported.
Colin Sheaf has enjoyed a distinguished 40-year career in the London art auction world. Regarded as a world authority on Asian ceramics and Chinese Art, as Deputy Chairman of Bonhams and Global Head of Asian Art he currently oversees Chinese and Japanese art auctions on four continents. He has lectured widely in the UK and Asia and is co-author of a definitive study of Qing Dynasty Chinese ceramics. He chairs both the world-famous Sir Percival David Foundation of Imperial Chinese ceramics, now on loan at the British Museum; and the Warwick Square Company which owns and manages a gold-medal-winning historic garden in London’s Pimlico.
