A carved amber'figural' group, 18th-19th Century (Christie's London, Gernard Arnhold collection), carved and pierced with Li Taibo holding a cup and resting beside a large wine jar beneath a pine tree, the reverse carved with deer and lingzhi fungus, the carving is of a deep, orange-red tone Provenance: Christie's London 2019; Collection of the late Gernard Arnhold (1918-2010). Note: Gerard was born in 1918 to a well-known family of Jewish philanthropists in Dresden, Germany. The Arnhold family were forced to flee to the UK in 1936 when the National Socialist Party came to power and seized the family’s assets. Gerard studied at Kings College, Cambridge University, but left to serve in the British Army in 1940, working in intelligence and going back into Germany at a huge risk to himself. In 1953 he moved to Brazil and started up a successful technology company, which he ran for 50 years. As a result Gerard was able to support a number of arts institutions and charities both in his birth town of Dresden and elsewhere, often requesting to remain anonymous. In the early 1980s Gerard loaned a significant portion of his Chinese collections to the Oriental Museum. From 1999 until his death in 2010 he was President of the Friends of the Dresden Philharmonic and also supported the State Art Collections and the Museum of Ethnology.