Provenance:

Family Collection of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton (1915-2009), Montreal, Canada.

Private American Collection.

Born into a prominent Montreal family, Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton (1915-2009) inherited a legacy of intellectual curiosity and cultural patronage. Her ancestry included James Pawley Dawes, founder of the Dawes Brewery of Lachine, the celebrated explorer and fur trader Peter Skene Ogden, and Dana Wilgress, Canada's first ambassador to the United Nations. Her father served as Vice President and General Manager of the Canadian National Railway's Central Region, providing an environment in which education, travel, and the arts were deeply valued.

Her passion for Chinese art originated a generation earlier. During the 1920s, her grandmother, Rachel Dawes Bond, traveled extensively in China and began assembling a refined collection of Chinese scholar's objects, jade carvings, and snuff bottles. Many of these treasures descended to Theodosia, who expanded the collection throughout her lifetime with acquisitions from Montreal's renowned Gurie Gallery.

Founded by the Gurevich family, who relocated from Harbin to Montreal in the 1950s, Gurie Gallery became one of North America's leading dealers in Chinese ceramics, jades, paintings, and decorative arts. Thornton developed a close friendship with its proprietor, Alex Gurevich (1929-1990), and through decades of connoisseurship assembled an outstanding collection of Chinese jade carvings, particularly scholar's objects distinguished by their refined workmanship and intimate scale.

An accomplished photographer as well as a collector, Thornton approached her jades with remarkable scholarly dedication. She maintained detailed journals documenting each acquisition, recording photographs, rubbings, historical research, maps, and connoisseurial observations. Like her grandmother before her, she was especially drawn to palm-sized carvings intended for contemplation and scholarly appreciation rather than display.

The family's collecting tradition continued into the next generation. During the 1990s, her daughter, Joan Thornton, expanded the collection by acquiring larger jade sculptures, including vessels, figures, animals, and mountain landscapes from leading dealers in Montreal and New York. Together, three generations of the Bond-Thornton family assembled a collection that reflects nearly a century of thoughtful collecting, combining scholarly curiosity with an enduring appreciation for the artistry and cultural significance of Chinese jade.

來源：

加拿大蒙特利爾市Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton (1915-2009)女士家族收藏。

美國私人收藏。

Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton (1915-2009，下文簡稱桑頓女士) 出身蒙特利爾名門，自幼承襲家族深厚的人文素養與收藏傳統。她對中國藝術的熱愛源自祖母，祖母曾於1920年代旅居中國，集有文房雅玩和玉雕雜項，不少日後由桑頓繼承。

桑頓畢生擴充收藏，大多購自蒙特利爾古董行Gurie Gallery。此行由原籍中國東北哈爾濱市的古列維奇（Gurevich）家族1950年代遷居加國後創立，是北美經營中國古玩的老牌古董商。桑頓與第二代經營者艾利謝·古列維奇（Alex Gurevich，1929–1990）交誼深厚，在他的協助下，建立起卓越的玉器收藏。

這項傳統也延續到家族下一代，1990年代其女瓊·桑頓（Joan Thornton）開始購入體量較大的玉雕器皿、山子等等。進一步擴充家族收藏體系。

Overall good and complete condition; light dirt residue in the recesses. The pink tourmaline eyes were added later.

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