Asian Art Auction - Monday 8 June 2015 at 6 p.m.
Two Chinese Jade Carvings from the Collection of Sir Michael William and Lady Wendy Turner, Hong Kong and London (lots 207208) Given as gifts to Sir Michael (19051980) (KBE. CBE. OBE. Hon LLD) while he was the Chief Manager of The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (Later HSBC) between 1953-1962. Sir Michael William Turner was born in Winchester, England, in 1905. He studied at University College, Oxford with a degree in military history and a stint on the English national field hockey team. Upon graduation, he joined the London HSBC office and was then posted to Shanghai. On his second tour in Shanghai he met and married Wendy Stranack (later Lady Wendy Turner), but was
subsequently transferred to Singapore where he was interned in Changi jail for the duration of WWII. It took six months to recover from the camp, and afterwards, he resumed his business career and succeeded Sir Arthur Morse as Chief Manager of HSBC in 1953 where he was instrumental in the considerable post-war expansion of the bank. Following retirement in 1963 he served as Chairman of the British Bank of the Middle East. Sir Michael died in London in 1980. A Turner room in the main Hong Kong branch of HSBC commemorates his services to the bank. During his time in Hong Kong he and Lady Turner acquired a number of Chinese jade carvings, porcelain, and works of art.
Sir Michael William Turner
207 WHITE JADE TWO-PIECE VASE, EARLY 19TH CENTURY Rendered from lustrous white stone and well hollowed and comprised of two separate sections joined together by a finely carved chain link, the bulbous body supported on a spreading foot and surmounted by a tall neck rising towards a flared rim, the body carved with designs of dragons and phoenix along either side and flanked by monster-head handles, total height height 5” — 12.8 cm. $6,000—8,000
208 PALE CELADON JADE LANDSCAPE VASE, 19TH CENTURY The well hollowed stone of an even celadon colour with minor russet inclusions throughout and rendered in the form of a baluster form vase of slightly flattened proprtion and carved with a continuous scene of crashing waves, cranes, and ‘100 antiques’, a pair of mythical beasts flanking either side of the neck and rim forming handles, one in the shape of a sinuous chilong, the other a dragon, the whole supported on a tall spreading foot. Wood stand, height 8.3” — 21 cm. $6,000—8,000
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