A blue and white dish, decorated with fan-shaped panels depicting Natural History designs and Manchu/Chinese Ladies, the base with Kangxi four-character mark, but not of the period, 28 cm diameter; together with a prunus decorated blue and white dish, 30 cm diameter [2]Provenance: The Property of a Lady and Gentleman. From a Private UK Collection. By Direct Family Descent from Sir Ernest Colville Collins Wilton, KCMG [1870-1952].Sir Ernest Wilton was born in Singapore, and was educated at the Bedford Modern School. At the age of 20, he entered the British Foreign Service, acting in a variety of posts across China. Like Marco Polo before him, Wilton also travelled to Yunnan Province, a remote area of south western China, now known as the unique habitat of the remarkable Blind Golden Barbel. At the time, Wilton was thereby one of the few western scientists and travellers to have visited this region, joining a group that includes the Botanist, Augustine Henry [1857-1930] and the palaeontologist, Roy Chapman Andrews [1884-1960]. Whilst Marco Polo recorded his travels there in Chapter XXXIX of his narrative, Wilton similarly gave his experience of the region to The Royal Geographical Society [Source: The Geographical Journal/Vol.49/No.6/June 1917].?Roy Chapman Andrews gave his paper to The Geographical Review for July 1918.?Wilton was Consul-General of Yung-chou in 1889, and in 1903 he accompanied Colonel Younghusband on the expedition to Tibet, presumably to assist the discussions with Chinese officials there. Younghusband's mission was not well received by the Dalai Lama, and disappointingly,? diplomacy was lost. This resulted in Younghusband's forces storming the Gyantse Jong on July 6th, 1904 [Source: 'The People'/Sunday July 30th 1905].?In 1912, the year in which Sun Yat-sen established a provisional government for The Republic of China at Nanjing, Wilton was at Tientsin. This momentous year also saw the abdication of Puyi, the Last Qing Emperor, an event that ended China's long Imperial tradition; Wilton was a witness, therefore, to these changes. His service with the British Legation in Peking, and his travels in Yunnan doubtless inspired him to study and to collect a variety of art form at this time of huge transition in China's history.Wilton served as President of The Commission for The Government of The Saar Basin 1927-1932, in a region that had been established by the Treaty of Versailles. Towards the conclusion of this sensitive appointment, Wilton witnessed the departure of British Troops from the Uhlan Barracks at Saarbrucken, an event that was captured on film [Imperial War Museum/MGH 4152].
