The Oliver Robert Coales Collection (lots 251-284)





The Oliver Robert Coales Collection (lots 251-284)Oliver Robert Coales, diplomat. Born 29 May 1880, London. Died 26 August 1926, Changsha, China.Oliver Coales from early childhood wanted to travel, and would often be seen, stretched on the floor, his head in his hands, studying a map. His career in the British Consular Service in China amply fulfilled his dreams.His obituary in the Shanghai Times included the following:'Mr Coales' ... journeys rank as a definite contribution to the annals of exploration. His great interest in Chinese antiquities was evidenced by the many curios which adorned his house, relics picturesque and fantastic, showing him to possess the true spirit of the collector'.At 20 he was the youngest that year to pass the Consular Service exam for 'China, Japan and Siam', and became a 'student interpreter', the first rung on the ladder. His sister Ellen writes: 'before leaving England he had to learn to ride, as the Minister in Peking thought it undignified for the student interpreters to fall off their ponies on the way!' This skill stood him in good stead, for soon he began to go on long journeys within China, riding a pony and accompanied by servants and pack animals.Posted to Peking (Beijing) in 1901, he saw the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, the return of the Emperor, and the funeral of the great Chinese statesman Lee Hung Chang (Li Hongzhang). He lived through the revolution of 1911, and the turbulent times that followed. Life was dangerous – once a battle between rival Chinese forces was fought on his veranda. Another time a river steamer was caught in a fusillade between rival factions and the Captain killed – Oliver being expected to try that murder case. And shortly before his death he wrote 'A gang of about 70 men climbed into the compound and looted everything of value, and then took Mr Moore away in his pyjamas ... we are in touch with the brigands and it may come to paying a ransom'.On leave in 1910 he travelled with ponies and pack animals from Ichang (Yichang) to Kashgar (Kashi), traversing Sechuan (Sichuan), Kansu (Gansu), Eastern Turkistan (Xinjiang), and the Gobi Desert. He crossed into Russia and made contact with the Trans Siberian Railway. 153 photographs of this journey were donated to the Royal Geographical Society and a short record of it, with the map he produced, was published in their Geographical Journal in 1912.In 1916/17, whilst stationed at Tachienlu/Dartsendo (now Kangding), he undertook a four month expedition through Eastern Tibet, seeking out the less travelled roads, and mapping the country. He gave a lecture on the journey to the Royal Geographical Society, when on leave in 1919, and wrote a paper: 'Economic Notes on Eastern Tibet'. Lecture and paper were published in the Geographical Journal, the latter with his large map. His official report of that journey was published for the first time in 2003 in The History of Tibet, edited by Alex McKay, and is now part of the regular study of Tibet in that period.Writing to his brother Dennis about this expedition he recalled visiting the ruined lamasery of Geden Jampa Ling (Dge-lDan Byam-Pa gLing) above the town of Chamdo (Qamdo): 'Nothing of interest remained except some fading frescoes on the walls and hundreds of little clay images which the lamas press in moulds and which had burnt to terracotta by the fire. I obtained some good specimens'. Also at Chamdo: 'I was ... able to buy two rather nice inlaid iron wine pots of local manufacture and some ornaments'. For 'wine pots' read 'chang jugs'. He collected another one somewhere, for two remain in the collection, whilst one was donated in 1928 by his widow Marjorie to the Victoria and Albert Museum, on display now next to items from Lord Curzon. The twelve thangkas are likely to have been collected in Eastern Tibet during this period.He worked in Peking (Beijing), Canton (Guangzhou), Chefoo (Yantai), Shanghai, Newchwang (Yingkou), Wuchow (Wuzhou), Tachienlu (Kangding), Chungking (Chongqing), Mukden (Shenyang), Foochow (Fuzhou), Tengyueh (Tengchong) and from 1924 in Changsha, Hunan, where he was British Consul, having been promoted to that rank in 1919.In 1924 he married Marjorie Wycliffe Russell, and in 1925 they had a son, Robert Francis Coales. Their happiness was short lived, for less than a year later he was taken ill one evening with streptococcal meningitis, and was found dead in the morning. The tributes to him at his funeral and afterwards showed him to have been a charming and popular man, one who would be much missed.His collection of artefacts has been in the family attics for decades, and his grandchildren have decided to sell most of them, keeping some as mementos, together with his journals, letters and photographs which have been newly rediscovered. Mary Christina Sybil CoalesGranddaughter of Oliver Robert Coales14 September 2018



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