Japanese and Korean Works of Art

Provenance:

Yamanaka & Co., Ltd. Kyoto, Japan, 1980.

Nantucket, Massachusetts—the small island—only 14 miles across and yet somehow boasting 110 miles of coastline—famed for scallops, lighthouses, and whaling is perhaps best known in the popular imagination as a seasonal enclave aptly suited for breezy seaside leisure. Fortunate swimwear-clad beachgoers gather around tiny grey shingled shops that line brick-paved roads, coast past billowing clouds of hydrangeas, and board recreational vessels moored in idyllic wharves. For one long-time resident, however, such idle leisure is not on the agenda. Always dressed in a suit and tie, David Billings is ready for work and the work is fun, as he has been for decades of carefully collecting and curating an inimitable collection of thousands of objects of Chinese art. Within his orbit, levity, joy, curiosity, and wonder are in no short supply. Together with wife and creative partner Beverly Hall Billings, they maintain what Steven Chait, president of the fine Chinese antique gallery Ralph M. Chait, calls ‘Nantucket’s best kept secret’.

To visit the Billings at their sprawling home/museum/garden/library/institute for higher learning and animal refuge is to be suffused in joy, knowledge, passion, and curiosity. Such are the forces likely in play that joined the couple—David, a lifelong collector of Chinese art, and Beverly, daughter of the seminal snuff bottle collector and scholar, late Gerry P. Mack (1911-1992). Together, their union fosters a collecting spirit wherein each object unfolds a story and each story leads to another object. They are generous both across space and time—locally, their intimate private museum is open for all, and globally, they share with museum exhibitions and publications. The couple recently collaborated at the invitation from the Nantucket Historical Association Whaling Museum to stage a comprehensive show, Asian Treasures from The Billings Collection, and have also published an award-winning catalog, the aptly titled Passion and Pursuit: The Billings Collection, to document their lifelong journeys through Asian art.

This Spring, they have further opened their doors to initiate a series of sales chronicling their lifelong journey in the love of collecting Chinese art, beginning now, with a selection of porcelains, snuff bottles, and textiles from the Qing dynasty.