A Paris Collector’s Very Chinese Tastes

As the anonymous collector bought his Asian artworks in the 1960s, the French market was snatching up Compagnie des Indes ceramics, made specifically for export to the West from the 17 th century onwards. He developed a sharp eye and a taste for porcelain from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), produced for the Chinese market. That accounts for why "the collection is so interesting," says Alice Jossaume, head of Asian art experts Portier et Associés. “It’s what the Chinese liked, which is quite rare for Europeans.” Chinese art is rife with symbolism that is hard for people uninitiated in its puns and their hidden meanings to understand. For example, the term for bat sounds like the word for "happiness", fu , and is associated with peaches. The bat refers to the wishes of happiness and long life conveyed on the occasion of a jubilee. The collector "was an enlightened connoisseur going against the tide, basing his collection on hunches while wanting to invest his money usefully," says auctioneer Olivier Doutrebente, who will not say anything more about him except that he displayed the Asian artworks in showcases in three rooms—the…