CHINA, LATE QING DYNASTY

George Hathaway Taber Jr. (1859-1940) was a prolific collector of Chinese ceramics and jades with a discerning eye. He was the son of Capt. George H. Taber (1808-1901), who rose from a humble background to become a prominent member of the community and held a number of important official positions including serving as President of Fairhaven Bank. The younger Taber made his mark as an oil executive and ultimately as a board member with the Gulf Oil Company. A self-taught engineer, he was instrumental in developing important advances in the oil-refining technique. Believed to have been influenced by a relative who had brought back tales and beautiful objects from his travels in China, George Hathaway Taber, Jr. built up an extraordinary collection, which was loaned or gifted to a number of museums, including the Philbrook Museum, to form the core of the Chinese collection. Upon his death in 1940, the collection was split up between his descendants, and part of it was sold at the Park Bernet Galleries, 7-8 March 1946. An extremely rare doucai tianqiuping gifted by the Tabers was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2018, lot 8888.