Captain John Dewar and Susan Dewar’s Chinese Paintings

Posted: April 17th, 2024 | No Comments »

These images (below) are all interesting, not just for their intrinsic beauty as watercolurs, but their ownership. The paintings were all purchased, probably in Shanghai, around the late 1890s by Captain John Dewar (1866-1950), a ship master, born in Shanghai though probably of Scottish origins. In 1896 Dewar married Susan Smith Oudney (1875-1967) in Shanghai. Susan’s father was William Oudney (DOB: 1846), originally from Dundee (Susan too was born in Dundee), who became a sailor and eventually a master mariner owned two clipper ships involved in the China Trade. Her mother was Isabella Mawer.

John and Susan were prolific collectors (much of which was passed down through the famioly andhas recently been coming up for auction) and seem to have bought mostly Chinese paintings and objets d’art, including the items below…

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