
Title Page, Illustrated Catalog of the Remarkable Collection of the Imperial Prince Kung of China. New York: 1913. Source: Google Books (public domain)
February, 1913. The American Art Gallery at New York’s Madison Square South hosted an unrestricted public auction, promising “a wonderful treasury of Celestial art.” According to the sales catalogue, the pieces came entirely from the collection of Imperial Prince Gong, heretofore housed in “his spacious Pekin mansion … northwest of the Imperial Palace.”
That spacious mansion is a well-known Beijing landmark today, having been restored and re-opened to the public in 2008 (just in time for the summer olympics). Now officially known as Prince Gong Mansion or Gong Wang Fu (恭王府), this princely estate’s history stretches back to 1777, when it’d been built as a lavish home for the Qianlong era official, He Shen (和珅).

The entrance to Prince Gong’s Mansion, as it appeared in 1911-12. Source: Google Books (public domain)
He Shen, a brilliant and corrupt court favorite under Qianlong’s rule, exercised no restraint in furnishing his mansion lavishly. Such extravagant display of personal power backfired when Qianlong’s son, the Jiaqing Emperor, summarily executed He Shen upon coming to power. The mansion subsequently passed hands until 1825, when it went to Yixin, Prince Gong of the First Rank and sixth son of the Daoguang Emperor. Having been passed over for the throne, Yixin received the lavish estate as a conciliatory present of sorts.
Famous in history books as one of late Qing’s most competent statesman, Prince Gong enjoyed a brief career as prince-counselor (yizhiwang議政王) during the Tongzhi Restoration of 1862-74. He led a movement towards modernization, spearheaded various reforms, and founded a government school (Tongwen guan同文舘) to teach Chinese scholars foreign languages and technologies.
But in 1884 Yixin was ousted from power and forced into retirement by the Empress Dowager Cixi, whose policies the Prince was often at odds. The next 14 years saw the disgraced statesman languishing in his mansion and gardens until his death in 1898.

1872: Prince Gong seated in his mansion garden, at about 40 years of age. Source: John Thompson, Illustrations of China and it’s people, vol.1, plate I, London, 1873 (public domain)
Today, the Prince Gong mansion remains the largest and most prominent princely seat (wangfu) in Beijing—and is one of the few to survive China’s turbulent history mostly in tact. But despite this ultimate survival, its 20th century history was a somber one: it passed through various owners and functioned under different guises, from Catholic university to government offices to air condition factory. Suffering the common fate of China’s historic buildings, the princely estate was gutted of its furnishings, valuables, objects, and works of art.
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The Mansion’s last years as a wangfuwere as turbulent as the era it occupied. Puwei, the last Prince “Gong” and Yixin’s grandson, advocated reform and — like his grandfather — was removed from power by court reactionaries. Seeking refuge with the German protectorate and in dire economic straits, Puwei offered his mansion and properties as a mortgage to the Catholic Benedictine Order.

Puwei (溥偉; 1880–1936), Prince Gongxian of the First Rank, and grandson of Yixin, Prince Gong. Source: Google Books (public domain)
1911-12 saw the final collapse of Qing authority, as well as wholesome disposal of Chinese works of art overseas, as palace eunuchs and members of the Manchu nobility began selling valuables to art dealers.
One such buyer was Yamanaka Sadajiro, who opened a store in New York’s west twenty-seventh street near Broadway, and bought aggressively in Beijing following the revolution. It was to him that Puwei sold the bulk of the Prince Gong Mansion collection.
Yamanaka & co. in turn staged a three-day auction at the American Galleries Feb. 27th – March 1st of 1913. Buyers flocking to acquire a piece of imperial treasure included names such as Louis Comport Tiffany, C.T. Loo, Charles Lang Freer, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. For various Shang dynasty ritual bronzes and archaic jades, Freer reportedly spent over $5000 (about $120,000 in today’s money after adjusting for inflation).
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The 1913 Yamanaka catalogue remains an interesting and important document. For one, it offers an inventory of Prince Gong’s estate when much of China’s imperial treasures disappeared undocumented through the ‘backdoor’ during decades of unrest. To this day, the catalogue is often cited in provenance and lot notes in major auctions around the world.
The Prince Gong sale is also representative of an early 20th century movement towards collecting Chinese art in the West; it is during this time that major collections were formed (such as the Sackler, Freer, Rockefeller, Brundage, and David holdings). The expanded volume of Chinese works of art in the West helped to establish independent Asian art wings in major museums, and heavily influenced design movements such as art nouveau and the aesthetic movement.

Cover, Illustrated Catalog of the Remarkable Collection of the Imperial Prince Kung of China. New York: 1913. Source: Christie’s Images
For the Chinese Art historian, the Yamanaka catalogue offers valuable insight into the kind of art that befitted a princely mansion during the Qing dynasty, as well as Prince Gong’s private taste as an connoisseur and collector.
Compared to works of art made for the imperial court, the Prince Gong collection is decidedly more refined and subdued. In the Song literati-antiquarian tradition, much of his estate included archaic bronzes and jades dating to the Shang, Zhou, and Han dynasties.

Lot 234: A Han dynasty ritual jade disk, bi. Yamanaka catalogue. Source: Google Books

Lot 297: a warring states period gold-inlaid bronze wine vessel, bianhu (mistakenly dated to Han in the original catalogue).

Lot 325: a manificent Western Zhou period bronze fanghu.
Of course, the collection also included pieces that suitably reflected the wealth and power of its owner, such as these Qianlong period jade and crystal vessels:

Lot 122: a Qianlong period white jade “marriage” bowl, which were popular status symbols amongst the Manchu nobility.

Lot 124, A spinach jade Mughal style ewer, Qianlong period.

Lot 163: a Qianlong imperial crystal hu vase.
The Prince Gong collection of Chinese ceramics is especially refined and tasteful. The catalogue mentioned almost no imperial porcelains from the Qianlong era and onward. Instead, Prince Gong seemed to have preferred white wares (the imperial choice of the early Ming and Yuan) of all kinds, including Song “ding”, Yongle “tianbai”, and Dehua blanc-de-chine pieces:

Lot 365-8: A group of Yongzheng period white-glazed porcelain (Jingdezhen ware).

Lot 382: A Dehua Blanc-de-chine alm’s bowl, 18th century. Yamanaka catalogue. Source: Google Books

Lot 385: A rare Yongle tianbai dish, marked with a four-character “yongle nianzhi” in archaic script.

Lot 387: Dingyao bowl, Song dynasty.

Lot 388: rare Song dingyao dish with molded relief.

Lot 393: 17th century Dehua Blanc-de-chine Guanyin.

Lot 394: a well-modeled 17th century Dehua Songzi Guanyin
The collection also included some Ming wares from regional kilns other than Jingdezhen:

Lot 464: imperial “Jun” narcissus bowl, numbered 1, early Ming.

Lot 489: A Ming Cizhou polychrome figural shrine of Guanyin.
Prince Gong had a passion for Kangxi porcelain, and collected fine pieces from both imperial and private kilns:

Lot 413: an extremely rare Kangxi blue and white ‘prunus’ balluster vase.
Very few vases of the above design (white reserve against blue ground) has been recorded. One painted with magnolias is in the Morgan collection. Consider a similar one offered by Christie’s Hong Kong:

A VERY RARE CARVED BLUE AND WHITE ‘PRUNUS’ BALUSTER VASE. Christie’s Hong Kong sale 2963 lot 2131. Source: Christie’s

Lot 416: late Kangxi famille verte phoenix tail vase, painted with beauties admiring a painting.

Late 451: Imperial Kangxi mark and period yellow-glazed taibaizun.

Lots 447-450: A group of late Kangxi imperial peachbloom (jiangdouhong red) scholar’s vessels, including two water coups, a taibaizun, and two paste boxes.

Lot 453: An imperial Kangxi mark and period clair-de-lune glazed amphora (now in the Yale University Art Gallery).
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In haunting testament to the resilience of valued works of art against the tides of history, several of the Prince Gong pieces have re-emerged to light in recent years– some to change lives and owners before the cycle repeats yet again.

Lot 238: a brown and grayish jade figure of Yanzhi in deer skin carved in the round refers to a story from “The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars”.

2011: 98 years later, the same jade figure, photographed for an exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Source: HK Musem of art; private collection, Benjamin W Yim

Lot 186: A large pale celadon jade vase, Qianlong fanggu mark and of the period.

The same offered for sale at Christie’s Hong Kong in 2006 (sale 2322 lot 1387). Source: Christie’s
Finally, there’s lot 199, the magnificent pair of zitan hardwood embellished screens from the Qianlong period.

Finally, there’s lot 199, the magnificent pair of zitan hardwood embellished screens from the Qianlong period.
And in 2010, when the pair fetched $4.1 million at Christie’s Hong Kong fall imperial sale:

A MAGNIFICENT MASSIVE PAIR OF JADE EMBELLISHED ZITAN MOON-SHAPED SCREENS QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795). Source: Christies SALE 2832 lot 3008