Harlequin Dancing

Otto (1870-1944) and Magdalena (1879-1950) Blohm, Hamburg, Germany; Caracas, Venezuela; and New York, by 1944-1950 [1]; 

Blohm estate, 1950-April 25, 1961;

Purchased at the estate’s sale, The Property of the Late Otto and Magdalene Blohm, Part II, Sotheby’s London, April 25, 1961, lot 419, by Newman & Newman Antiques, London [2]; 

Ernesto (1903-1970) and Emily (1906-1993) Blohm, Caracas, Venezuela, nos. 100a and b, by 1970 [3]; 

By descent within the Blohm family to Cai von Rumohr, Andra Angell, and Henrik Blohm, by 2005;

Sold at their sale, British and Continental Ceramics, Christie’s, London, June 27, 2005, lot 16; 

Patricia Ingram Hart (1935-2022) and Henry Rodes Hart, Sr. (1932-2025), Nashville, TN, by 2010-at least 2012 [4]; 

With Michele Beiny, Inc., New York, by 2025;

Purchased from Michele Beiny, Inc. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2026.

NOTES:

[1] Otto and Magdalena Blohm were prolific collectors of European porcelain from their marriage in 1899 until Otto’s death in 1944. With the onset of the Second World War, they carefully packed their collection and put it into storage, first at Magdalena’s brother Hermann’s farm outside Hamburg, and later in the cellar of their own home at 36 Harvestehuderweg. Although their house was damaged by an incendiary bomb, the collection survived the war unscathed. Otto died of a stroke in 1944. After the war, Magdalena traveled to New York, bringing her Chelsea snuffboxes with her. The rest of her collection was shipped to New York with the assistance of Eric Warburg, a family friend serving in the US intelligence service. This transfer occurred sometime before January 1948, when some of the pieces were exhibited at Frank Partridge’s gallery on 56th Street. For more about the Blohms, see the forward to the exhibition catalogue, The Collection of 18th Century European Porcelains assembled by the late Mr. Otto Blohm, opening 15th January 1948 (Baltimore, MD: John F. Osbourne, Inc., 1948); Günter Stiller, “Blohms Porzellan-Juwelen,” Hamburger Abendblatt (June 29, 2005): 13; and Victoria Reed, “Museum Acquisitions in the Era of the Washington Principles: Porcelain from the Emma Budge Estate,” Studi di Memofonte no. 22 (2019): 11-12.

[2] A Newman & Newman Antiques label is on the underside of the object. See also the lot description, British and Continental Ceramics, Including Property from the Collection formed by Otto and Magdalena Blohm (London: Christie’s, 2005), 20–21 and “The Sale Room: £167,000 Paid for Porcelain,” The London Times (April 26, 1961): 19.

[3] Ernesto Blohm, son of Otto and Magdalena Blohm, was also a porcelain collector and acquired a number of pieces that had previously been sold from his parents’ collection.

[4] Included in Birte Abraham, Commedia dell’arte: The Patricia and Rodes Hart Collection of European Porcelain and Faience (Amsterdam: Aronson Concepts, 2010): 98–99 (repro.). Failed to sell at Patricia Hart’s sale, La Marche Comique: Porcelain from the Patricia Hart Collection, Christie’s, London, July 5, 2012, lot 26.