3rd Apr, 2025 10:00
Fine Asian Art Auction
A Chinese Kangxi blue and white dish
A Chinese blue and white dish, Kangxi, with Chenghua six-character mark, painted with warriors on horseback and flag-bearing servants, the rim similarly decorated within panels, the reverse with six-character mark within panels of ruyi heads and leaves, 34.3cms diameter.
Provenance: James Leathart (1820-1895) born in Alston, Cumberland, Leathart was the son of a struggling mining engineer and prospector. He married Maria Hedley, daughter of a prosperous soap manufacturer and Mayor of Newcastle. At his death, they had ten surviving children. Leathart lived at 12 Framlington Place, Newcastle, and after 1869, Brackendene, Low Fell, Gateshead.
Leathart was a Newcastle lead manufacturer and a patron of artists who included James Whisler, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other of the Pre-Raphaelites. Leathart had worked his way up through the firm of Locke, Blackett & Co., Newcastle, from his apprenticeship at the age of fourteen through his own studies in chemistry and metallurgy, eventually becoming managing partner.
Initially, through his position as Secretary of the Newcastle School of Art, he bought local artists and watercolours, but William Bell Scott, head of the School, soon encouraged him to buy the Pre-Raphaelites and other contemporary artists. A large part of his collection was commissioned directly from artists. In November and December 1863, Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown urged him to buy Wapping, for 800 guineas, but it was bought by Thomas Winans in 1864 for £350. He did own Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks. He also purchased many pieces of Chinese porcelain to go along with his collection.
Despite Locke, Blackett & Co. being the largest lead-manufacturers on Tyneside, the company suffered financial losses from foreign competition in the 1870s. Due to his own increasing financial difficulties, Leathart was forced to sell some of his collection in the 1890s, and he died leaving an estate of £14,924. Many of his paintings are now in public collections, like Ford Madox Brown's Work (1852-65; Manchester City Art Galleries) and Albert Moore's A Musician (1865-66; Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund).
Many of the other works have been exhibited in Gallery Exhibitions including the Laing Art Gallery. Most of the collection has been sold by members of the family as time has passed. These pieces of Chinese Porcelain are some of the few items left from his collection.
Sold for £1,800
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Auction: Fine Asian Art Auction, 3rd Apr, 2025
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