Manchu man's semiformal court coat (jifu)

Object Details

Previous custodian or owner

Richard G. Pritzlaff (1902 - 1997)

Wu Ping-Chung

Wu Laixi 吳賴熙 (died ca. 1950)

Provenance

Possibly to no later than 1948

Wu Laixi ??? (d. ca.1949-1950) reportedly acquired from decedents of noble Chinese families [1]

Possibly ca.1949 to 1959 see previous comment

Wu Ping-Chung (dates unknown) inherited ownership upon Wu Laixi's death around 1949 [2]

To 1991

Richard G. Pritzlaff (1902-1997), mode of acquisition unknown [3]

From 1991

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery acquired through partial gift and partial purchase from Richard G. Pritzlaff [4]

Notes:

[1] Wu Laixi ??? (alternate romanization: Wu Lai-hsi) was an antiquities dealer who often sold high-quality, imperial goods sourced from Chinese nobles, among other sources. Active in the 1930s and 1940s, Wu Laixi purchased portraits in China, reportedly for his personal collection and for resale; he took great pride in his collection, labeling himself as the first collector of Chinese ancestor portraits.

In 1937, Wu sold portraits to the American, Richard G. Pritzlaff, who was visiting China. Pritzlaff and Wu remained in touch. In the 1940s, Wu worried about his financial security and the fate of his collection in China, where war with Japan and domestic turmoil threatened the security of private art collections. Wu wrote to Pritzlaff, asking if he could send portraits in exchange for money to survive. Between 1940 and 1948, Wu sent three shipments of portraits and other art objects to Pritzlaff's ranch in New Mexico. Wu intended for Pritzlaff to sell the majority of the art objects he sent, however, Pritzlaff did not want to disperse the collection, so he sent as much money as he could to Wu and retained the art. Pritzlaff reported that he "thought of himself as the owner of some paintings but wanted to be only a temporary custodian of others" and intended for Wu to one day collect the entire collection. It remains unclear which portraits Pritzlaff believed he owned. See letters from Wu Laixi to Pritzlaff, September 4, 1940; June 27, 1941; June 17, 1947; and August 6, 1948, copies in accession file.

[2] See note 1. Upon Wu's death, Pritzlaff contacted Wu's son, Wu Ping-Chung who lived in Taiwan; he declined to claim the collection but retained ownership rights until he transferred them to Pritzlaff in 1959. See the letter from Wu Ping-Chung addressed "To Whom it May Concern," June 15, 1959, witnessed by Major Thurman W. Oliver of the United States Army, copy in accession file. In the letter Wu declares, "I .... Hereby transfer, for remunerations received, my interest and rights inherited from my father, Mr. Wu Lai-hsi, deceased, in his collection of paintings, to Mr. Richard Pritzlaff of Sapello, New Mexico, U.S.A."

[3] See notes 1 & 2. Richard G. Pritzlaff was a collector of Chinese art and a rancher who initially raised cattle but then became a well-known breeder of Arabian horses. When studying landscape architecture at University of California at Berkeley and then at Harvard, he developed an interest in China. He traveled there in 1937 and began collecting Chinese objects. For Pritzlaff's account of how he acquired his collection, see letter addressed "Dear Sir" from Pritzlaff, October12, 1988, copy in accession file. In theory it is possible, however, that Pritzlaff purchased it from another source but there is no information he sought out portraits from dealers other than Wu Laixi.

[4] For the deed of gift and purchase arrangement, see accession file.

Credit Line

Purchase — Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program and partial gift of Richard G. Pritzlaff

ca. 1900-1911

Period

Qing dynasty

Accession Number

S1991.71

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Costume and Textile

Medium

Woven silk with supplementary weft, gilded metal buttons, silk ribbon embroidered with metallic thread on collar and cuff, and blue silk lining on cuffs only

Dimensions

H x W: 142.2 x 209.8 cm (56 x 82 5/8 in)

Origin

China

Related Online Resources

Google Cultural Institute

See more items in

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Topic

Buddhism

Daoism

crane

dragon

Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911)

mountain

China

Chinese Art

Pritzlaff collection

weft patterning

Record ID

fsg_S1991.71

Metadata Usage (text)

Not determined

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye3fe7f46e5-c4de-4bb6-a765-956ff06369c3