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Lot Essay
Lin Xizong (dates unknown) is believed to be a contemporary of He Chaozong, who was working during the 16th and early 17th centuries. A slightly larger (18.4 cm.) figure of Guanyin bearing the seal of Lin Xizong was sold at Sotheby’s London, 14 May 2014, lot 27.
A native of the Bavarian city of Munich, William Biller Gruber (1903-1965) is best-known for his iconic stereoscopic photographic viewing device known as the View-Master. His education as a builder and tuner of Steinway pianos and Chorallon organs was augmented by courses in acoustics at university in Freiberg, Germany. His understanding of the complex workings of pianos and organs, coupled with his love of the then new idea of stereoscopic sound and passion for photography, led him to invent the instantly popular View-Master, which made its debut at the New York's 1939 World Fair.
In addition to his skills as an inventor, Gruber had a true love of the arts and started collecting fine Chinese and other Asian works of art in the early 1950s. By the time of his death, he had amassed one of the largest independent collections of Chinese pottery and porcelain in the United States. He traveled extensively to the homes of private collectors, museums and auctions in search of the finest objects and along the way became close friends with some of the world's foremost authorities on Asian art, including Sir Harry Garner, Margaret Medley and Patrick Donnelly. He is noted for his independent personal projects for the View-Master, including Alpine Flowers of the Western United States, Mushrooms in their Natural Habitats, A Stereoscopic Atlas of the Human Anatomy, and his last work, Chinese Art in Three Dimensional Colour, on which he partnered with Medley and Garner; it was published posthumously by the Asia Society in 1969. All of these projects reflected Gruber's passionate love of nature, beauty and fine art, and have become themselves rare and precious in their own right.
A native of the Bavarian city of Munich, William Biller Gruber (1903-1965) is best-known for his iconic stereoscopic photographic viewing device known as the View-Master. His education as a builder and tuner of Steinway pianos and Chorallon organs was augmented by courses in acoustics at university in Freiberg, Germany. His understanding of the complex workings of pianos and organs, coupled with his love of the then new idea of stereoscopic sound and passion for photography, led him to invent the instantly popular View-Master, which made its debut at the New York's 1939 World Fair.
In addition to his skills as an inventor, Gruber had a true love of the arts and started collecting fine Chinese and other Asian works of art in the early 1950s. By the time of his death, he had amassed one of the largest independent collections of Chinese pottery and porcelain in the United States. He traveled extensively to the homes of private collectors, museums and auctions in search of the finest objects and along the way became close friends with some of the world's foremost authorities on Asian art, including Sir Harry Garner, Margaret Medley and Patrick Donnelly. He is noted for his independent personal projects for the View-Master, including Alpine Flowers of the Western United States, Mushrooms in their Natural Habitats, A Stereoscopic Atlas of the Human Anatomy, and his last work, Chinese Art in Three Dimensional Colour, on which he partnered with Medley and Garner; it was published posthumously by the Asia Society in 1969. All of these projects reflected Gruber's passionate love of nature, beauty and fine art, and have become themselves rare and precious in their own right.