George Aristedes Eumorfopoulos

Individual
1863-1939
British

Relations
Spouse: Julia Scaramanga

Place of birth: Liverpool, United Kingdom

Place of activity: London, United Kingdom;

George Eumorfopoulos was an influential collector of Chinese art during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Liverpool to Aristides Georges Eumorfopoulos (1825--1897) and Mariora Eustratius Scaramanga (1840--1908), who came from the Greek island of Chios in the early nineteenth century. He joined the Baltic Exchange in 1880. Four years later, in 1884, Eumorfopoulos entered the firm of Scaramanga, Manoussi, and Company before he moved to the maritime trading and financial firm of Ralli Brothers in 1902. He was made a vice president of the firm after it became a limited company in 1931. Eumorfopoulos married Julia Scaramanga (1864--1944) in 1890 and lived at 7 Chelsea Embankment, London, where his collection was also displayed.

Eumorfopoulos began collecting Chinese art in the late 1890s and was part of a group of collectors who, during the early decades of the twentieth century, took advantage of the numerous works of Chinese art that were coming out of China after the Boxer Rebellion and during the period of political instability and civil war that followed. His collection of Chinese objects consisted primarily of newly discovered archaeological objects, such as ritual bronzes and jades and early burial ceramics, sculpture, paintings, and ceramics now recognized as classic wares of the Song dynasty. A member of the Karlbeck Syndicate, Eumorfopoulos acquired works from major dealers, including John Sparks and Bluetts, as well as S. M. Franck and Yamanaka. He lent objects to the City of Manchester Art Gallery Exhibition of Chinese Applied Art in 1913 and was an organizer and lender to the 1935--36 International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In addition, he was the founding president of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London (1921), and a member of the Burlington Fine Arts Club. Eumorfopoulos also collected Korean, Near Eastern, and European art and was a patron of many young artists. 

Intending to bequeath his collection to the nation, Eumorfopoulos was forced to sell the majority of his collection, albeit at a reduced market value, due to financial setbacks following the 1929 financial crash and the Great Depression. His collection of Chinese art was divided between the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. A public subscription was launched in 1934 to raise the required 100,000 to acquire the collection. Duplicate items were sold through the art dealer Bluetts, and some 800 pieces were donated to the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece. The remaining collection was sold at auction after Mrs. Eumorfopoulos's death in 1944.

 

Literature
R. L. Hobson, Perceval Yetts, et al., The Eumorfopoulos Collection, 11 vols. (London, 1925--32).
Bluett and Sons, exhibition catalogue and sale of 331 items, March 26--April 16 (London, 1935).
Obituary, Times (London), December 20, 1939.
R. L. Hobson, "George Eumorfopoulos," Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 17 (1939--40), p. 9.
Sotheby's, The Eumorfopoulos Collection, May 28--31 (London, 1940).
Percival Yetts, "George Eumorfopoulos," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2 (1940), pp. 253--58.
Sotheby's, Catalogue of the collection of Chinese ceramics, paintings and jades, Persian pottery and Islamic glass, antiquities and works of art, textiles, rugs, carpets and fine English furniture. The property of the late Mrs George Eumorfopoulos, April 20 (London, 1944).
Gerald Reitlinger, The Economics of Taste, vol. 2 (London, 1963), pp. 214, 271--72.
Judith Green, "'A New Orientation of Ideas': Collecting and the Taste for Early Chinese Ceramics in England: 1921--36," in Stacey Pierson, ed., Collecting Chinese Art: Interpretation and Display, Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia no. 20, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art (London, 2000), pp. 43--56.
George Manginis, "The George Eumorfopoulos Donation to the Benaki Museum in Athens," Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 66 (2001--2002), pp. 77--93.
Judith Tybil Green, "Britain's Chinese Collections, 1842--1943: Private Collecting and the Invention of Chinese Art," chap. 5, PhD diss., University of Sussex, 2002.
Basil Gray, "Eumorfopoulos, George (1863--1939)," revised by Mary Tregear, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, England, 2004); search http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33030
George Manginis, "A collection of Chinese ceramics at the Benaki Museum," Mouseio Benaki 7 (2007), pp. 197--207.
Stacey Pierson, Collectors, Collections and Museums: The Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain 1560--1960 (Bern, 2007), pp. 89, 91, 92, 103, 112, 113, 116, 117--64.
Roy Davids and Dominic Jellinek, Provenance: Collectors, Dealers and Scholars in the Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America (Oxford, England, 2011), pp. 166--68.
Victoria and Albert Archives: Nominal file MA/1/E827: "Mr and Mrs G. Eumorfopoulos" (the Eumorfopoulos collection); MA/31/9: Register of loans in; MA/28/49/1-5: Chinese art: the Eumorfopoulos collection, Apr 1935-1936; MA/29/7/1-2: Chinese art: the Eumorfopoulos collection, Apr 1935--1936; MA/46/1 & 2: Advisory Council minutes.