Correspondence; 540 letters and postcards received, 1933-1972, from Charles Brady, F. W. Hayman Chaffey, Aristodemos Kaldis, and many others; photographs; catalogs; publicity material; clippings; an inventory of Chinese works of art purchased by Marantz in the 1930's; and miscellany. Also included is a scrapbook, 1947-1970, containing correspondence, clippings, catalogs, and photographs.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 1974-1975 by Mrs. Irving Marantz, widow of Marantz, and after her death by their daughter Mady, 1976.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
4 Linear feet (consisting of 8 legal document boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Notes
Correspondence
Place:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Date:
1979-2015
Summary:
The Shirley Z. Johnson Papers, dating from 1979-2015, measure 4 linear feet and include an inventory, correspondence, and research files related to Johnson's collection of Chinese textiles.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Shirley Z. Johnson measure 4 linear feet and date from 1979-2015. The papers largely relate to Johnson's collection of textiles. The papers include inventories, object files, correspondence, and research files.
The inventories and object files document Johnson's textile collecting and include book lists, images, documentation, and research organized by individual object.
The correspondence files include letters, notes, emails, news clippings, interview notes, museum object lists, press releases, and notes related to the holdings of museums, art dealers. They also contain information related to imperial robes and the individual Yan Yong, a scholar and Deputy Director of the Court History Department and the Head of the Division of Textiles at the Palace Museum in Beijing, China.
Research files comprise printed material, articles and speech drafts, and notes related to Chinese textile research. Topics represented in the records include sumptuary laws, symbolism in religious traditions in China, rank badges in various Chinese military branches, and instructions for dating textiles.
The original container numbers established by the creator are documented with their corresponding files.
Arrangement:
The Shirley Z. Johnson papers are arranged in six series.
Series 1: Inventories
Series 2: Correspondence with Collectors
Series 3: Correspondence with Dealers
Series 4: Correspondence with Museums
Series 5: Correspondence with Curators
Series 6: Research Files
Biographical Note:
Shirley Z. Johnson is a scholarly collector, antitrust attorney, and autism advocate.
Ms. Johnson's first Asian art collection consisted of imperial Chinese textiles about which she wrote an article in Arts of Asia, (1995). Some textiles have been given to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Freer|Sackler), others have been loaned to it and, as of 2019, have been promised as a gift. Her interest in Chinese textiles began in 1979 when she visited China and purchased four pieces: two from Chinese people seated on the ground among the stone animals leading to the Ming tombs and two rank badges from an antique store on Lui Li Chang street in Beijing.
Beginning around 1992, she became interested in Japanese metal work, when she spotted a piece she liked of the Meiji period (1868 – 1912) at Orientations Gallery in New York. Thereafter, she collected metal art of that era until 2006, when she began collecting work of living metal artists. She gave her collection of Meiji metal work to The Walters Art Museum in 2019 (along with Japanese cloisonné and prints) and has promised her collection of contemporary metal art to the Freer|Sackler, along with extensive archives relating to each piece and interviews with about 100 metal artists beginning in 2006.
She served on the Board of The Textile Museum from 1989-2003 and on the Board of the Freer|Sackler from 2004-2012 and from 2017 to 2021.
Ms. Johnson had published several articles on Asian art: "Tomobako: Functional Beauty," Impressions, 42 Part One 2021; "Japanese Metal Art: An Enduring Tradition," Arts of Asia, May-June 2017; "Chinese Ancestor Portraits in the Sackler's Collection," Arts of Asia, July-August 2003; "A Textile Collector's Approach to Collecting," Arts of Asia, July-August 1995.
Her legal specialty was antitrust law. She worked as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, was counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust Subcommittee, and entered private practice in 1976 until she retired in 2009.
She graduated from the University of Michigan law school in 1965 with a Juris Doctor degree and was a member of The Order of the Coif. Previously she received a bachelor's degree in Political Science, summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
In 2004, she founded a unique social skills program for children with autism at the West Burlington, Iowa School District involving classroom guidance, luncheon and after-school groups and a summer camp. Each activity involved both autistic and neurotypical children. The program was called the TRI Project, standing for Intense, Inclusive, Individual.
Provenance:
Donated by Shirley Z. Johnson in 2015. Addition donated by Shirley Z. Johnson in 2019.
Restrictions:
Collection is restricted until 2140.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Shirley Z. Johnson Papers. FSA.A2016.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Shirley Z. Johnson, 2015.
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
6.15 Cubic feet (consisting of 14 boxes and 1 flat box.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Slides
Notes
Photographs
Place:
Shanghai (China)
Singapore
Date:
1928-2008
bulk 1945-1982
Summary:
The Helen D. Ling Papers, dating from 1928-2008 with the bulk of material dating from 1945-1982, measure 6.15 cubic feet and include biographical material, research, writings, correspondence, printed material, and audiovisual material related to Ling's life and work as a collector and dealer of Asian art.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Helen Ling measure 6.15 cubic feet and date from 1928 to 2008, with the bulk of material dating between 1945-1982. The papers largely relate to Ling's personal life, research, and collections of Chinese objects. The papers include biographical material, research, writings, correspondence, printed material, and audio recordings.
Arrangement:
The Helen D. Ling papers are organized into six series: Series 1: Biographical Material; Series 2: Diaries; Series 3: Research Files; Series 4: Writings and Notes; Series 5: Correspondence; Series 6: Printed Material; Series 7: Audiovisual Material; Series 8: Lectures; Series 9: Sales Records
Biographical Note:
Helen Dalling Ling was born Helen Dalling on July 28, 1901 in Uhrichsville, Ohio, and grew up in Everett, Pennsylvania. Ling was an American collector, dealer, and connoisseur of Asian art and antiques.
In 1925, Ling attended an American Baptist Foreign Mission picnic where she met Tien-Gi (Ti-Gi) Ling, a Chinese research chemist who was studying for his master's and subsquent doctorate in industrial chemistry from Brown University and Cornell University, respectively. Ling traveled to Shanghai by herself in 1928 to see if she could live in China, as marrying Ti-Gi would strip her of her American citizenship. Content in Shanghai, she and Ti-Gi married several months after her arrival in the spring of 1928.
The pair lived throughout South China, Hong Kong, and Singapore where she held various positions including as an English teacher and secretary. The couple had one son, James G. Ling, in 1930. Ling became interested in antiques prior to moving abroad, and eventually opened an antique shop in Shanghai in 1938 called the Green Dragon. When the Lings moved to Singapore in 1951 after escaping the Communists in Shanghai, Helen Ling opened another shop under her own name which she operated until her death on May 15th, 1982. Ling was very active in the field of Southeast Asian art, regularly giving lectures and was regularly featured in publications on her expertise in Asian art. She co-founded and served as the first president of the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society, Singapore in 1971. Ling was thrust onto the global stage when her friend, Jim Thompson, co-founder of Thai Silk Company Limited disappeared while visiting her and Ti-Gi at there home, Moonlight in 1967. Thirty-four Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery collection items were once part of Ling's personal collection, and were either sold or donated to the museum after her death by her family.
Provenance:
Gift of Ann S. Ling.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Helen D. Ling Papers, FSA.A2019.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Ann S. Ling.
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection in 2017 was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF). Processing of an accretion in 2022 was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's American Women's History Initiative (AWHI).
664 Items (photographs and negatives, black and white and color)
1 Item (newspaper clipping)
1 Item (museum catalog)
Container:
Folder 4
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Negatives
Place:
China -- Description and Travel
USA -- District of Columbia -- Washington
Date:
1945-1972
bulk 1945-1949
Scope and Contents:
Photographs and a newspaper clipping, ca 1945-1972, documenting the Chinese art collection of Captain and Mrs. Sergius N. Ferris Luboshez, formed substantially during the 1945-1949, while Luboshex served in the Department of State. Documented are works dating from the Neolithic (ca. 5000-ca. 1500 B.C.) to the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1912); and a catalog of artworks from his collection exhibited at the University of Maryland Art Gallery in 1972. Also included are photographs taken by Captain Luboshez of place views and people in China. Formats include color snapshots, black-and-white prints, safety and nitrate film negatives, and 35mm color slides.
Arrangement:
1 box : Arranged by form of material.
1 oversized folder : Organized by size.
Biographical / Historical:
Captain Sergius N. Ferris Luboshez (1896-1984), scientific researcher and educator, lawyer, and collector of Chinese art. Born of American parents in England, Luboshez studies philosophy and aesthetics at the British Institute of Philosophical Stduies. He later taught physics at the University of London, experimenting in the sonar detection of submarines, and developing a number of inventions relating to radiation shielding and light control. He studies law in England, serving as a barrister-at-law, and later as a member of the New York Bar and that of the District of Columbia. With the outbreak of World War II, Luboshez entered the United States Navy. After the war, he became general counsel to the Office of the Foreign Liquidation Commissioner of the U.S. Department of State for an area that included China and Japan. He was subsequently appointed central field commisssioner with headquarters in Shanghai.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1992.01
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Sergius N. Ferris Luboshez Collection, FSA A1992.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Berniece Ferris Luboshez, 1992.
Identifier:
FSA.A1992.01
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Papers, 1942-1997, and undated, chiefly in Chinese, a small portion photocopies, including: about 70 letters received, 1964-19997, from friends and colleagues; manuscript drafts and research notes; printed material, including exhibition catalogues and articles written by Wang and others; a few snapshots of Wang and friends, and approximately 1,00 still photographs, 500 35mm slides, 80 color transparencies, and 150 negatives, that mostly depict the work by Bada Shanren, including fakes attributed to the artist.
Photographic material: I. 195 prints, 55 duplicate prints, 1 negative of Bada Shanren's works that are dated, or can be positively dated. II. 66 prints of Bada Shanren's works painted before 1684, and between 1684 and 1694. III. 34 prints of Bada Shanren's works painted between 1695 and 1705. IV. 26 prints, 8 duplicate prints, 5 negatives of identified fakes or obvious fakes of Bada Shanren's works. V. 85 large and 624 small miscellaneous prints of various sizes. VI. Photocopies of miscellanea on Bada Shanren, 7 items.
Manuscripts: I. Published works of Wang Fangyu and parts of Wang's manuscripts. II. Correspondence from Wang Fangyu's friends, not numbered. III. Articles written by Wang Fangyu's friends. IV. Reading notes by Wang Fangyu. V. Miscellaneous notes. VI. 10 printed pamphlets.
Arrangement:
Organized by form.
Biographical / Historical:
Professor Wang Fangyu (1913-1997), collector, art historian, regarded highly for his extensive research on the Chinese artist Zhang Da (1626-1705), commonly known as Bada Shanren. He was one of the world's foremost experts on the life and art of the artist. Prof. Wang also taught Chinese language at Yale University for numerous years.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1999.36
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Topic:
Art, Chinese -- Collectors and collecting Search this
The Paul Singer papers measure 23 linear feet and date from circa 1880s to 1997. Materials include biographical documents, correspondence, writings and notes, exhibition and symposium files, travel files, personal art collection records, personal business records, printed material, artwork, artifacts, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The Paul Singer papers measure 23 linear feet and date from circa 1880s to 1997. Materials include biographical documents, correspondence, writings and notes, exhibition and symposium files, travel files, personal art collection records, personal business records, printed material, artwork, artifacts, and photographs.
Biographical materials document Paul Singer's life in Vienna, Austria and in the United States. Scattered biographical documentation concerning Singer's wife, Eva Geyer, is also included. Correspondence files show the many relationships Singer maintained with art auctions and art dealers, Asian art colleagues, and various museums and universities in an effort to continuously expand and exhibit his collection. Topics also include requests for loans and viewings of Singer's art collection; consultations about other art objects; auction and sales offers; and his unpublished collection catalog project. Writings and notes include drafts of articles, essays, Singer's memoirs, and Singer's unpublished collection catalog drafts. As reflected within exhibition and symposium files, items from Singer's collection were included in several exhibitions over the years, many at the Asia House Gallery and China Institute of America, and a symposium held in his honor at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 1990, "New Perspectives on Chu Culture during the Eastern Zhou Period." The papers also include various materials documenting Singer's international travels, especially to China from 1979 onward.
Personal art collection records document various Singer collection purchases and sales and include invoices, receipts, shipping documents, appraisal and laboratory testing results, scattered loan agreements, and Arthur M. Sackler Foundation and Purchase Fund documentation. Personal business records include Singer's personal financial files, legal files, and estate papers. Also found within the papers are printed materials, a sketchbook and sketches by others, two picture frames, and a bronze bust of Paul Singer by David Cregeen. Personal photographs depict Paul Singer and his friends and family through snapshots, portraits, vintage photographs, and one album, and primarily document Singer's life in Austria. Also included are images of Singer's apartment showing his collection as a whole, as well as various social events. Photographs of works of art, both within Singer's collection and from other sources, constitute the bulk of the photographs found within the papers and include four photograph albums. However, researchers should note that prints, slides, and negatives of works of art are as yet largely unsorted.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1911-1996, undated [0.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 28, OV29]
Series 2: Correspondence, 1906-1996 [2.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-8]
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1950s-circa 1990s [2.0 linear feet; Boxes 8-13]
Series 4: Exhibition and Symposium Files, 1957-1990 [0.7 linear feet; Boxes 13-15]
Series 5: Travel Files, circa 1960s-circa 1991 [0.2 linear feet; Box 15]
Series 6: Personal Art Collection Records, 1951-circa 1996 [1.9 linear feet; Boxes 16-20]
Series 7: Personal Business Records, 1948-1997 [0.9 linear feet; Boxes 20-23]
Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1900-1996 [0.9 linear feet; Boxes 23-24, 28]
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1950s [0.1 linear feet; Boxes 24, 28]
Series 10: Artifacts, circa 1970s-circa 1980s, undated [1.1 linear feet; Box 24, Bust]
Series 11: Photographs, circa 1880s-circa 1990s [12 linear feet; Boxes 24-27, 30-40]
Biographical / Historical:
Paul Singer (1904-1997) was a collector of Chinese art and neuropsychiatrist active in New York.
Born in Pressburg, Hungary in 1904, Singer grew up in Vienna, Austria where he studied medicine and developed his lifelong interest in Chinese art. He began his studies in 1921 at the Realgymnasium in Vienna, becoming a neuropsychiatrist in 1929 at the University of Vienna. He and his wife, actress Eva Geyer (1907-1975), fled Austria in 1938. After staying briefly in London, they arrived in New York in 1939 where Singer frequented art dealer shops, such as C. T. Loo and Ralph Chait, auction houses, and thrift stores. Singer met Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) at a Sotheby's auction in 1957. After Singer's wife's death in 1975, Sackler and Singer entered an agreement whereby Sackler would pay to support Singer's collecting and Singer's collection would go to Sackler upon his death.
Galleries and museums around the country displayed works from Singer's collection, and in 1965, Singer and Max Loehr (1903-1988) co-curated Relics of Ancient China (1965) at Asia House Gallery in New York. The Chinese Institute in New York held several exhibitions showing pieces from his collection, two of which included: Early Chinese Gold and Silver (1971) and Early Chinese Miniatures (1977), for which he wrote the catalogs. In honor of Singer's eighty-fifth birthday in April 1990, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery held a symposium, "New Perspectives on Chu Culture during the Eastern Zhou Period," displaying a select number of objects from his collection and dedicating the published volume of presented papers to Paul Singer. In addition to curating and collecting, Singer also published scholarly articles on Chinese art in journals such as Archives of Asian Art and Oriental Art, and was senior consultant to the Far Eastern Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Max Loehr (1903-1988) began constructing a comprehensive catalog of Paul Singer's collection in 1965, sending entries to Singer as he and his colleagues completed them. After Loehr's death, Thomas Lawton (1931- ) took over much of the Singer collection catalog project, hoping for completion in time for the Symposium in 1990, but the catalog was never published.
Paul Singer died in New Providence, New Jersey in 1997.
Provenance:
Donations received in part from Dr. Paul Singer in 1991 and after his death in 1997, and from the executrix of his estate, Ms. Margit Elsohn, in 2000.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Cong "Shi qu bao ji", "Mi dian zhu lin" de bian zuan kan huang di jian cang jia de dan sheng Qiu Shihua = Observing the cultivation of an emperor connoisseur from the compilation of the Pearl Forest of the Secret Hall and the Precious Collection of the Stone Moat / Shih-hua Chiu
Title:
從《石渠寶笈》《秘殿珠林》的編纂看皇帝鑑藏家的誕生 / 邱士華 = Observing the cultivation of an emperor connoisseur from the compilation of the Pearl Forest of the Secret Hall and the Precious Collection of the Stone Moat / Shih-hua Chiu
Observing the cultivation of an emperor connoisseur from the compilation of the Pearl Forest of the Secret Hall and the Precious Collection of the Stone Moat
Dalle Indie orientali alla corte di Toscana : collezioni di arte cinese e giapponese a Palazzo Pitti / Francesco Morena ; coordinamento e presentazione, Ornella Casazza ; con un saggio di Lucia Caterina
