Lacquered Throne

With Yueh Yu Ping, Peiping (modern-day Beijing), China, by January 1932 [1];

Purchased from Yueh Yu Ping, through Laurence Sickman and the dealer Dr. Otto Burchard, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932 [2].

NOTES:

[1] According to Laurence Sickman, advisor to the Nelson-Atkins on Asian art, in a letter to Langdon Warner, Fogg Art Museum, February 16, 1932, this throne was “An imperial piece, well known here in Peking and coming form [sic] the Ting Ling - Eastern Tombs.” Harvard University, Pusey Library, Langdon Warner Personal Archive, box 12, folder 20, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. Laurence Sickman’s purchasing notebook indicates he acquired this throne from Yueh Yu Ping (whose shop, Pin Chi, was located on Tan erh Hutung). An accession card in the Nelson-Atkins files, however, lists dealer Scha Yu Fu as the throne’s source. Scha Yu Fu was located at 6, Shu Yo Hutung, outside Shun Chieh Men, Peiping. It is unclear whether Scha Yu Fu may have been involved in the transaction, but since the accession card naming him would have been created later than Sickman's purchasing notes, and Scha Yu Fu is not mentioned anywhere else in documentation for this object, his inclusion on the accession card may have been an error. Research on the provenance of this object is ongoing. Nelson-Atkins Archives, MSS001 Laurence Sickman Papers, box 12, folder 11, copy in curatorial files.

[2] Sickman often employed art dealers in Peiping to act as his agent, locating objects for his consideration and negotiating with vendors. When he first started looking for examples of lacquered furniture to acquire for the Nelson-Atkins, he worked with dealer Celestin Liu, as he described in a letter to Langdon Warner dated October 18, 1931: “…[we] are on the trail of a red lacquer throne.” He ultimately purchased this throne, however, through the dealer Otto Burchard, as described in a notation in Sickman’s purchasing notebook: “by Burchard.” See Harvard University, Pusey Library, Langdon Warner Personal Archive, box 12, folder 21, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files and Nelson-Atkins Archives, MSS001 Laurence Sickman Papers, box 12, folder 11.