When a piece of furniture captures my attention, the motivation to buy is not always pecuniary. Sometimes I confess I was driven by sentimentality. The purchase soothes my heart and soul, but in my inventory it indefinitely dwells. One such piece is the handsome black lacquer curio cabinet pictured here. Made of cedar or a similar wood, the surfaces were coated with black lacquer. Unusual breaks from the traditional symmetry, shelves in the top section are staggered in different levels for interesting display of curios and antiques. The multiple drawers are perfect for holding small objects like jades and seals. More antiques can be stored in the lower section for occasional rotation. The black background and the uneven spacing provide an ambiance for the pieces of antiques and enhance their value. So why did I buy it? In another time and place, a curio cabinet like this was forever etched in my memory, displaying objects of art that were not to be forgotten.
The last time I saw it was a sneaked peek into my great-grandfather’s Curio Room in his stately home in Hong Kong . Great-grandfather Ho Kom-tong made his fortune in successful business dealings. But he was best remembered as a man with a wife, eleven concubines and twenty seven children - a local record that has yet to be surpassed. A reputation like this obviously overshadows his fame as a collector of antiques and curios. His house Kom Tong Hall, built in 1914 in a classic revival style, boasted of a walk-in safe, a place to keep his extra antiques as he rotated his collection. His European antiques were on display in the drawing room named the French Parlour, so named because of the white and gold architectural features that included ionic columns and gilded ceilings with crown mouldings and furnished with French provincial furniture. His Chinese antiques were exhibited in glass vitrines in his living room upstairs, filled with Guangdong black wood furniture that were ornamented with designs made from mother-of-pearl. The rare and valuable pieces of the collection were kept in the Curio Room where Great-grandfather would entertain his fellow collectors and visiting dignitaries by showing his latest acquisitions of archaic jades or painted porcelains. Children were forbidden to enter the room. On one occasion when I, a small child of no more than six, found the door ajar and stole a glance, before my nanny shooed me away, her main charge was to make sure I would not misbehave. The moment was short in sight but long in remembrance - an unforgettable memory of beautiful objects on display in his curio cabinet. As time progressed and my interest in Chinese art grew, these objects acquired names – the square tube became an archaic jade cong, the lady in white was a blanc de chine Guanyin, and the pretty vases were Qing Dynasty painted porcelains.
The art collection survived World War II and was noted as being one of the best private collections in Southeast Asia . A museum in Australia offered to buy 400 of the best pieces but Great-grandfather was ill advised to send the collection to New York
Kom Tong Hall was preserved as a historic building by the Hong Kong Government. After extensive renovations, it opened in December 2006 as the Dr. SunYat-sen Museum, to commemorate the founder of the Chinese Republic
For views of Komtong Hall please watch this video by frl:
I have been to Dr. SunYat-sen Museum,many times and taken visitors there when I lived in HK from 1982 to 2004. I did not know of its history and enjoyed your deep ties to the home and Mr Ho.
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