20th century Porcelain from the Collection of John Constable (lots 410-421) John became interested in China during his teenage years, an interest subsequently strengthened by reading Chinese jointly with Russian at Leeds University. The degree included an undergraduate (and life-changing) year studying in Beijing, followed, upon graduation, by a post graduate scholarship in China. In the late 1980s John worked as an expatriate with British Airways in Beijing and had extensive business dealings with China in the first half of the 1990s. A marked change of career led John to join Hanshan Tang Books in 1997 where he is now the majority shareholder and runs the business. His ongoing and active interest in collecting Chinese art was accelerated by the move to Hanshan Tang. Emerging areas of collecting have always interested him more than established fields and it was this that led John throughout the 1990s to assemble a collection of 20th century Republic period Chinese ceramics, a then relatively unknown and little-researched area. A particular fascination within this field has been the interplay of two areas of Chinese art - painting and ceramics. However, other emerging fields of Chinese art, such as the art of the Cultural Revolution, are becoming a preoccupation for him and the decision made, with some reluctance, to part with a selection of Republic period ceramics to make room for new acquisitions. Peter Wain September 2010