Sharing with you this mustard-coloured Peking glass bowl.

Peking glass is a traditional type of Chinese decorative glass associated with workshops in Beijing (formerly Peking). It was especially developed during the Qing dynasty, when glassmaking flourished under imperial patronage from the Kangxi period onward.

Provenance: Collection of H.A. van Oort (1916–2001), Professor of East Asian Art at the University of Amsterdam (1973–1986).

Henri Albert van Oort developed an early interest in Chinese art during his time in Singapore, where he was employed as a bank clerk. During the Second World War, he served in the Dutch army. Following his military service, he studied cultural anthropology at Leiden University, where he completed his doctoral dissertation, The Porcelain of Hongxian. This research was later published in 1977 as Chinese Porcelain of the 19th and 20th Centuries, one of the first major scholarly studies devoted to the subject. His publications also include The Iconography of Chinese Buddhism in Traditional China (1986).

In addition to his academic career, van Oort was an avid and discerning collector of Chinese and Japanese art. A number of the works illustrated in his publications were drawn from his own collection.