- Header
- Hon Mountstuart William Elphinstone
- Also known as
-
Hon Mountstuart William Elphinstone
-
primary name: Elphinstone, Mountstuart William
- Details
- individual; collector; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1871-1957
- Biography
- The Hon M.W. Elphinstone was the brother of the sixteenth Lord Elphinstone. He was at the War Office 1914-19. He joined the Oriental Ceramic Society in 1929 and in 1933, with the President George Eumorfopoulos (q.v.) he was responsible for enlarging the Society to include all those interested in oriental ceramics. He was Hon Secretary from 1934-1944, during the Second World War when meetings were held at Lancaster House. He contributed many pieces to the Royal Academy exhibition of 1935-6. There are over 200 objects from the Elphinstone Collection in the Percival David Collection among them 150 monochrome porcelains and one of a pair of 14th century blue and white temple vases, dated to 1351, and now known as ‘the David Vases’. He donated to the British Museum 1927-1934. Besides Oriental Porcelain he was also interested in portrait photography.
- Bibliography
- Jessica Harrison-Hall,"Catalogue of late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum", 2001, p. 588. Stacey Pierson, "Collectors, Collections and Museums: The Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain", 1560-1960, 2007, pp 147, 151, 183-186 & 194. Who Was Who, vol. V 1951-60, fourth edition London 1984; Roy Davids and Dominic Jellinek, "PROVENANCE: Collectors, Dealers and Scholars: Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America", 2011, p. 161, Plates 50 & 51, pp.163 & 164.