Yixing clay ewer.

PROVENANCE: Highlight of this sale is part of the collection of K'ung Hsiang-Hsi (Kong Xiangxi, 孔祥熙, 1880-1967). Born in Taigu, Shanxi province, to a well-established family of businessmen and educated by Christian missionaries, K'ung was a 75th-generation descendant of Confucius.

K'ung Hsiang-Hsi was a passionate advocate for education - having studied at Oberlin College and Yale University before returning to China in 1907, he helped to set up schools in his hometown of Taigu to fulfil his vision of strengthening China through education in the 1910s. His initial career as an educator was cut short by the political disruption caused by the fall of the Qing dynasty. He was soon appointed the civil administrator of Taigu and division commander of the local army. Shifting politics obliged K'ung to spend time in Japan, where he met and in 1914 married Soong Ailing (1889-1973), eldest of the three famed Soong sisters and eventually became the brother-in-law of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek.

K'ung also engaged in business, trading internationally in kerosene and other natural resources through his Xiang Ji Company. K'ung Hsiang-Hsi served in several critical posts in the Republic of China government: Minister of Industry and Commerce (1928-1931), Minister of Finance (1933-1944), Governor of the Central Bank of China (1933-1945), and Premier of the Republic (1939-1945). During his career, he enacted important economic reforms and was among the key architects of China's modern financial and industrial systems.