The Chinese Imperial Prince Kung Collection is a renowned collection of Chinese art and artifacts that was owned by Prince Kung (Chinese, 1833–1898), an influential royal and statesman of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in China. The collection is named after Prince Kung, who was known for his love of art and his patronage of the arts during his lifetime.

The collection is made up of a wide variety of objects, including jade carvings, bronze vessels, porcelain, paintings, and calligraphy. Many of the objects in the collection were created during the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, which are considered to be some of the greatest periods in Chinese art and culture.

The Prince Kung Collection was sold at auction in 1913 by the American Art Galleries in New York, where it attracted a great deal of attention from collectors and art enthusiasts around the world. The auction featured over 1,000 lots, including many rare and valuable objects.

The sale of the Prince Kung Collection was a landmark event in the history of Chinese art, as it helped to introduce Chinese art to a wider audience in the West. It also marked the beginning of a new era in the study and appreciation of Chinese art and culture, as Western scholars and collectors began to take a more serious interest in the subject.

Today, many of the objects from the Prince Kung Collection can be found in museums and private collections around the world. They are highly prized for their beauty, historical significance, and cultural importance, and they continue to inspire and delight art lovers and scholars alike.

Featured in our May 6th Americana and Chinese Major Auction:

is an Inlaid Archaistic Bronze Vessel (Lot #115) from the collection, a Han type cast having tapering sides rising from a flat foot to round shoulders, contracted neck and flaring rim, having serrated border of triangular Lappet bands on the shoulder and foot. The body decorated with a dense modified Leiwen ground stud with turquoise boss inlays, malachite oxidation, Han type attributed to a succeeding period, diameter 11 1/2 inches.

We have matched this bronze by photo, scan and analyzed via expert opinion to the original photo from 1913.

The Prince Kung Vessel mirrors the design of Eastern Zhou through Han dynasties “pou ritual vessels”. There are only several examples of this design, one of which can be found in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (acc. No. B60B1031). This lot is one of two known recorded examples having been cast with an inscription.

Provenance: Originating from Imperial Prince Kung of China, this vessel was sold at auction in “The Prince Kung Collection” at the American Art Galleries auction in Madison Square South New York, February 27th and 28th, 1913, Item #306.

The vessel sold for $1,550 to W.W. Seaman agent, acting as an agent for a private client. W.W. Seaman agent is listed as buyer of 66 pieces in “The Prince Kung Collection” catalogue including this vessel.

Through research and family information, we have found that Homer Pace who founded Pace College in 1906 (later Pace University) in New York City and was the first President of the College probably bought the vessel.

Upon Homer Pace’s death in 1942, his son Robert Pace who became Pace University’s second President is believed to have inherited the vessel from his father. Family information shows that Robert then gifted the vessel to his sister in law Mae Neville sometime near the end of World War II.

In 1969 or 1970, Mae Neville then gave the vessel to her friend Elinor Murray where it has resided until the present time.