HOWARD AND JACKIE RENDALL

passionate COLLECTORS FOR OVER HALF A CENTURY

Howard’s interest in Asian Arts was deep rooted. As a child, his much-loved Mother Brenda regularly read to him from his favourite book ‘Rupert and the Chinaman’, recounting Rupert the Bear’s adventures in China. His childhood home was furnished with quality furniture and an Asian decorative arts collection of pieces carefully selected by his father which he learned to love and appreciate. 

Education progressed and Howard established a scientific career. An event in the 1960s was to reignite his interest in Asian Arts.   Whilst house sitting for an eccentric lady relative, Howard discovered that she had tidied up and dumped antique glass, clocks and porcelains into the  waste bin in preparation for his arrival. When emptying the bins Howard  retrieved an intriguing pair of hand painted shell porcelain saucers he understood to be Chinese.  He took them to the British Museum and met the eminent and highly respected Curator and Keeper of the Oriental Department, Mr. Basil Gray, who candidly informed him that his discovery was worthless – the saucers being pre-war mass produced Japanese examples.  His crestfallen response literally opened doors as Howard was shown into the Museum’s store room and given the opportunity to closely examine the finest Chinese ceramics outside of the Imperial Collection in China.  Howard’s youthful enthusiasm had impressed an ageing Basil Gray, for he offered to nominate him for membership of the prestigious Oriental Ceramics Society, he was elected a full member in 1966.  Thus he joined an institution with high ranking dignitaries and an average age of 70 for members – it was short-lived – Howard saw himself as a ‘fish out of water’.  All was not lost – he was still ‘hooked’ on Chinese Art and hungry to learn and collect more.

During 1973  Howard had the opportunity to realise his childhood dreams by working in Japan, giving him a foretaste of the psyche and values of the region.  Further travel in Asia followed and in 2002 the happy couple spent a month visiting China, travelling up the Yangxi River and exploring its principal cities and museums including those in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan,, Chong Ching, Suzhou and Xian (Jackie will never forget when she met and embraced the peasant who discovered the “Terracotta Warriors”)

Since retirement, Howard and Jackie have continued to enlarge their knowledge and expand the collection considerably beyond the pieces passed down from Howard’s father, Kenneth James Rendall, spending time visiting antique fairs, shops, dealers and libraries.  Jackie’s passion for intricate design and craftsmanship was behind the growth of the cloisonne pieces within the collection.  In recent years, the process of bidding for a ‘special item’ located throughout the world then taking delivery of it just ten days later can and still does bring back the childhood excitement and wonder that Howard first experienced all those years ago when dreaming about China.