The Trudy and John Neville Cohen Collection of Chinese Pendants

The Collector/Dealer Relationship and the Generations!

The Trudy and John Cohen Pendant Collection

by

Richard Marchant

S. Marchant & Son, London, England

As a young man in the autumn of 1954 I joined the firm of S. Marchant & Son. I was the second generation of a company founded by my father Samuel Sydney Marchant in 1925. This was a remarkable time to begin one's career in the antique business mainly because of the learning opportunities. Goods were plentiful with auctions held in London almost every day.

There were many small auctioneers who held specialist sales of Oriental art, but these are now closed or have been taken over by larger firms. Two names that come readily to mind, both subsequently taken over by Phillips, are Puttick & Simpson and Glendinning. It was the latter that was my favourite. Perhaps it was the character of the man, Mr French, who ran the company. He doubled as cataloguer and auctioneer, and general adviser to both buyer and seller. The only thing he did not do was make the tea which was served during an interval half way through the sale. Alas for progress, we lose some of the quality of life in our search for the new, but I digress.

Mr French's netsuke auctions were memorable. Can you imagine a handful of dealers and collectors seated about a horseshoe-shaped table covered with green baize? One porter holding a tray with netsuke would walk around the table and in turn show the tray to all the prospective buyers. It gave them the opportunity for a second look and to remind them of the lot on which they were bidding.

Occasionally my father would send me to the sale with the instruction to buy anything I liked at two pounds a lot or if it had special charm, I could bid as high as four pounds! If Christies held a sale of Japanese art, one lot would comprise of six or seven netsuke, tied together on a string. This type of lot would often comprise of horses, rats or other zodiac animals, put together so that a more substantial sum, perhaps up to three hundred pounds, could be obtained. Today these pieces would individually be sold for thousands of pounds. It was at one of these auctions that I could meet a client of ours, Mr George Cohen, an avid collector with impeccable taste and as a bonus a charming gentleman.

He mentions a purchase from our gallery of an Okatomo netsuke, of a rabbit and young, in his book 'In Search of Netsuke and Inro' on page 14 Netsuke number N44. With the passing of time he introduced me to a new collector, his son John, a man brought up with art, who shared the same high standards as his father. Eventually he took over the collecting mantel of his father just as I succeeded my father as a dealer, so that the tradition of each family passed to the second generation. With this sense of responsibility in mind, in 1981 I recommended John should consider forming a pendant collection.

This was a field with good opportunities, few if any specialist collectors and material was available. One had to admit little had been written about the medium and therefore knowledge would be limited. As far as I know, the only previous catalogued exhibitions had been held by Liberty's of London in 1919 and 1925 entitled 'Jade Amulets'. However it offered an exciting prospect and John must have felt equally enthusiastic because he purchased three pieces to begin the collection (numbers P2,  P18 & P26). He also continued the search elsewhere and found a fine group of ten from Robert Hall (numbers P24,  P33,  P54, P59,  P63,  P65,  P66,  P67,  P69 & P70).

Pendants should each have a silk attachment so that they can be suspended when worn. This is achieved by the Chinese using silk cord tied with elaborate knots, often enhanced with seed pearls, and a semi precious bead such as coral or agate. This presents a problem, because many pendants do not have these elaborate silk attachments. Whether the silk has deteriorated and fallen off, or never had them to begin with, is an unanswerable question.

I can suggest the earlier jade 18th Century, more tactile pieces never had them. My reasoning being that men in China, even to this day attach them to their belt, and use them as fondling pieces. They wear them also for good luck and long life, as jade is reputed to benefit the wearer in those respects. I believe this is the group that should be referred to as amulets. Surely pendants not tactile, very thin and delicate and usually of fine contrasting colours, are the ones meant to have a silk attachment and in later times they have been worn by women around their neck as jewellery.

Many Chinese people believe that green jadeite worn next to the skin will improve in colour, but then mythology has always been a favourite subject in China. In any case this presented a problem for John, as he needed to unify the collection. This would best be served by all the pieces having beautiful attachments. He set about learning the art and as you can see has been very successful.

The seventy pendants have another great feature of unity, they all are of outstanding quality and beauty.

It is very satisfying for so many years to have had such a close and lasting relationship with the Cohen family. I hope my son Stuart, the third generation of S Marchant & Son can continue the tradition, to recommend pieces to Jason, the third generation of the Cohen family.

Richard Marchant

Website: https://www.marchantasianart.com

E-mail: marchant@dircon.co.uk

Richard P. Marchant
S. Marchant & Son
120 Kensington Church Street
London W8 4BH
England