Ralph M. Holman (June 7, 1914-September 3, 2013), a fourth-generation Oregonian and the 74th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, began collecting Chinese porcelains in the 1960s with his wife, Louise Oesch Holman. An avid student of Asian art, Justice Holman delighted in the experience of collecting, travellingannually to New York, London and Paris to follow the art markets from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Holman lived with his acquisitions in a way that reflected his engagement with art and history. He expertly discussed his porcelains and studied them actively until his final days, demonstrating a meticulous knowledge of his collection, with a particular interest in the Kangxi period. The pieces featured in this auction were displayed in Holman’s home, set carefully alongside arrangements of cultivated heirloom roses from his gardens above the Willamette River Valley. Holman was a former judge in residence at New York University School of Law and a life member of the Board of Trustees at Lewis and Clark College, and the Ralph M. Holman Law Center in Oregon City was founded in his name in 2007. A warm man with a keen intellect and connoisseur's eye, Holman’s legacy will long be remembered.

Provenance:
Parke-Bernet New York, 2 March 1968, lot 96.
Justice Ralph M. Holman (1914-2013) Collection.