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A set of 39 pastels by Vivian Dorf, from Johan Gunnar Andersson's last expedition to China and Tibet 1936-1938.

Estimate
30 000 - 35 000 SEK
2 620 - 3 050 EUR
2 740 - 3 190 USD
Hammer price
34 000 SEK
Purchasing info
A set of 39 pastels by Vivian Dorf, from Johan Gunnar Andersson's last expedition to China and Tibet 1936-1938.

Portrait of man and women from Tibet. Each verified with the signature of Johan Gunnar Andersson and his Chinese red seal. Varying sizes, most of the sheets 62 x 47,5 cm.

Minor damages.

Provenance

The Collection of Anders Hellström (1877-1940)
An industry leader best known for his work as managing director and chief executive of the paper and cardboard manufacturer AB Papyrus between the years 1912-1940.
In addition to his daily work, he spent a lot of his time on cultural work.
With his practical abilities associated Hellström vast cultural interests it came in handy with his skills in maintaining communication with representatives of science and art. In a number of artistic and scientific-acting compounds, he played a leading role,
in particularly the ancient Chinese art that was his main interest. The outstanding collection of Chinese bronzes he had acquired over the years, would in professional circles receive the highest appreciation. A few years after his death, part of his collection became donated to the museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm.

The Collection of Johan Gunnar Andersson. His Chinese name was An Tesheng 安特生. Andersson was a famous Swedish Archaeologist, paleontologist and geologist, closely associated with the beginnings of Chinese Archaeology in the early 1920’s. He started his career at Uppsala University, participated in the Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901-1903.
In 1914 he was invited to China as mining adviser to the Chinese government. His affiliation was with China's National Geological Survey (Dizhi diaochasuo) which was organized and led by the extraordinary Chinese scholar Ding Wenjiang (V.K. Ting). During this time, Andersson helped train China’s first generation of geologists, and also made numerous discoveries of iron ore and other mining resources, as well as discoveries in geology and paleontology.
From there he went on to further excavations. They made several important prehistoric finds from the Neolithic period. 1926, the Swedish prince came to visit, at the same time Andersson announced the discovery of human teeth, they were later identified as being the first finds of the Peking Man.
He published numerous books and scientific papers on Chinese archaeology, many in the Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. Many finds were shipped to Stockholm for analysis.
In 1926, Andersson founded the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden (in Swedish: Östasiatiska museet), a national museum established to house the Swedish part of the collections from these first-ever scientific archaeological excavations in China. Andersson served as the director of the MFEA until he was succeeded in 1939 by the famous Swedish Sinologist Bernhard Karlgren.
The Chinese part of the Andersson collections, according to a bilateral Sino-Swedish agreement, was returned by him to the Chinese government in seven shipments, 1927-1936. A part of these shipments were showed in 2006 at the Geologial Musuem in China, after being lost for decades.

More information

Two letters from Johan Gunnar Andersson to Anders Hellström, dated Stockholm 30 September 1938, and 27 October 1938 accompanies the pastels. The first letter thanking Hellström for a generous donations of 1.000 kr to help realizing the exhibition, and for giving 1.000 kr for the pastels by Viviane Dorf (originally 47). The second letter regarding the return of Hellström's exhibited items, and also for the return of the then 47 pastels. Johan Gunnar Andersson further describing that he verified the authenticity of each pastel with his signature and Chinese seal in red.