Inscribed Oracle Bone
Zhang Naiji (1899-1948), Paris and New York, by 1948 [1];
Acquired from Chang Nai-Chi’s estate by Arthur B. Rothwell (1906-1994), New York and Dallas, TX, 1948-October 25, 1960 [2];
Acquired from Rothwell, by exchange, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1960.
NOTES:
[1] Zhang Naiji (also known as Nai Chi Chang and N. C. Chang) was a collector and dealer who owned Tonying & Company, an antiquities shop in Paris. He emigrated to New York in 1939, where he continued to collect. Zhang worked for C. T. Loo & Company in New York, and later Oriental Fine Arts, which was owned by Arthur B. Rothwell (see note 2). In a letter to Laurence Sickman, Nelson-Atkins Director, dated November 18, 1960, Rothwell described how he came to own the oracle bones: “The inscribed bones, etc. were in the collection of my late associate, Mr. Chang Nai-Chi and were acquired by me from his estate. His death, of course, was so sudden that no provisions had been made for obtaining much of the information that was required later regarding both his personal and also the gallery collection. I am afraid I have no knowledge of the date or place of acquisition but many of his archaic jades and other pieces were obtained during his long purchasing visit to China in 1947 and again in 1948.” Nelson-Atkins Archives, RG 02 Department of Asian Art Records, box 6, folder 2.
[2] Arthur B. Rothwell was born in Oldham, England in 1906 and worked as an import manager for Yangtze Trading Company during his early career. He spent several years in New York as president of Oriental Fine Arts, Inc., until 1949, when he closed the gallery and moved to Panama. By 1959, he lived in Dallas, Texas, where he was involved in the oil industry with the Cheyenne Oil Corporation. In a letter to Laurence Sickman dated October 25, 1960, Rothwell proposed an exchange in which he would trade his collection of carved bone fragments for a redundant object from the Nelson-Atkins collection. The object traded by the Nelson-Atkins was a Ting ware cup, which had been purchased by the Museum through Sickman in 1935. The newly-acquired oracle bones assumed the Ting ware cup’s accession number of 35-115. Nelson-Atkins Archives, RG 02 Department of Asian Art Records, box 6, folder 2.
