The Chater Legacy: A Selection of the Chater Collection was an exhibition of 46 works from the collection of Sir Paul Catchick Chater (1846-1926) featuring paintings of the landscape of South China trading ports in the 18th and 19th centuries and British activities in China. The exhibition included oil paintings, watercolours, sketches, prints, and photographs from the collection gifted to the people of Hong Kong by Chater in his will. It is one of the best-known early Hong Kong collections, which originally contained more than 400 works of art.
Many of these works were displaced during the Japanese occupation during the Second World War (1939-45), of which only around 80 pieces were returned to the government by local residents and organisations after the war ended. The collection still reflects the origins of Hong Kong and a history of the China coast, including Canton, Macau, and the China trade through the recording of landscapes, shipping activity, and portrayals of people that appear in the paintings and prints.
Paul Chater arrived in Hong Kong as a teenager in April 1864 from Calcutta, India, to live with his sister’s family (the Jordans). He was of Armenian stock and came from a family of 13 children, whose father was part of the Indian Civil Service. His first job in Hong Kong was as a junior bank clerk. During his early career, he was greatly helped by his brother-in-law, who was already an established broker in Hong Kong and China. After being involved in several companies such as Chater & Mody, Dairy Farm, and Kowloon Wharf and Godown, he founded Hongkong Land in 1889 (The Hongkong Land and Investment Agency Company Ltd), which laid the groundwork for Hong Kong’s first major land reclamation project. Chater had come to realise that the future of Hong Kong was caught up with the expansion of land and the development of Hong Kong as a major trade port.
With his growing wealth and stature in Hong Kong, he first built a bungalow in Kowloon near St Andrews Church in 1885-86 – one of the first homes built of that size on HK island. He chose a plot on Caine Road next to his then Parsee business partner Hormusjee Mody (1838-1911) and nearby his relatives. He also retained a bungalow on Austin Road in Kowloon, and both houses were used to host prominent guests over the years, including an Armenian archbishop and the second-to-last Hawaiian monarch, King Kalakaua.
In 1901, he began construction on a Marble Hall in Conduit Road – a vast home built to reflect his wealth and standing in the city. This home was filled with imported European as well as Chinese antiques, including his collection of ceramics. The main person helping Chater start his collection, and who also helped design and decorate his house, was James Orange, who was originally involved with the public works department and land reclamation (an interest of Chater). He later went into partnership with Danby & Leigh (in 1890), which became Orange & Leigh – an architectural firm that went on to build Marble Hall, as well as being involved in many of Hong Kong’s public works projects. Orange played an important role in forming Chater’s collection – he was known as a collector himself – and was able to obtain Wyndham Law’s collection of China trade paintings for Chater that became the core of Chater’s own collection.
The most important record relating to the whole of the historic Chater Collection is The Chater Collection catalogue, published in 1924 by Butterworth, which is an invaluable resource for studying the original collection. The book includes many plates with several images to each plate, making a total of 249 images in the 528 pages. The book was written in 1924 by Orange who had become the curator of the collection. At this time, the collection comprised 430 items with the backbone of the collection being the former collection of Wyndham Law, formerly of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service.
Due to the turbulent history of the Chater Collection, it is now only a fraction of its original size. Shortly before Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese in 1941, the Governor Sir Mark Aitchison Young ordered valuable works of the Chater collection to be hidden in the wine cellar and strong room in the basement of Government House. However, the basement was considerably altered during the Japanese Occupation, the paintings were most probably discovered and removed by the Japanese troops.
There may have been another secret store besides the basement. On 8 December 1941, Captain Batty-Smith, Aide-de-Camp to the Governor, had a secret meeting with the Hungarian Kobza-nagy, an artist and photographer (and restorer of part of the Chater collection), and Thomas Harmon of the Public Works Department. Later, documents revealed that the paintings from the collection had their frames removed and then placed in sealed tins. They were then buried in the garden of Government House. Only Batty-Smith, Kobza-nagy, and Thomas Harmon knew the exact location, but the mystery of the hidden paintings was lost as all three men died during the Japanese Occupation. However, quite a few paintings still remained on the walls when the Japanese captured Hong Kong.
In 1942, the Japanese had Government House renovated, and a local contractor, Sinn Chi Lam, who took part in the project, found more than 20 works from the collection in a rubbish dump. He successfully smuggled 23 works out of Government House and relocated them to his home village in Bao An, Guangdong. After the war, Sinn Chi Lam returned all the works to the Hong Kong Government. Another citizen also played an important role in the recovery of part of the collection – a Portuguese man living in Hong Kong after the war. Mr F A Xavier discovered several pieces from the collection in an antique shop in Central. On this discovery, he later continued his search in the antique shops in Central and eventually acquired some 30 pieces. Xavier also donated all these works to the Hong Kong Government. Some paintings were also found in Macau.
Chater’s ceramic collection had been relocated to the Government Stores in North Point. After the fall of the Government Store, more than 980 ceramics were shipped out of Hong Kong by the Japanese in 1942. It is said that the vessel carrying this special cargo sank somewhere in the northern waters of Hong Kong.
Some of the Chater paintings were believed to have remained hidden under Government House. After the war, several attempts were made to uncover these treasures in 1945 and 1976. In 1979, when Government House underwent a major renovation, the grounds were thoroughly searched, from the basement to the nearby underground tunnels and air-raid shelters, yet nothing was found.
The collection also included a library of 54 rare books relating to China, which Sir Cecil Clementi, Governor of Hong Kong from 1925 to 1930, had presented to the University of Hong Kong in 1927, after Chater’s death. Most of the Chater books date to the 19th century, with some titles having excellent illustrations, including the important work A Picturesque Voyage to India by Way of China with illustrations by Thomas and William Daniell (1810).
The Chater Collection, having sailed through long years of turmoil, has been reduced from approximately 430 works to 94 pieces. This residue was handed to the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery (predecessor of the Hong Kong Museum of Art) in 1962 and became one of the three major private collections that established the museum when it opened. These works are now part of the Art Museum of Hong Kong’ s collection.
