12-13 / 154
Chinese porcelain recovered from a sea wreck,
around the port of Jakarta in 1983. It was discovered
by Captain Michael Hatcher and his crew who
brought up 25,000 pieces of unbroken porcelain,
mostly blue–and–white late Ming and early Qing
wares from the Jingdezhen kilns.
Similarly, lot 9 was part of the famous “Nanking
Cargo”, the cache of 150,000 pieces of Chinese
porcelain and 125 pure gold ingots recovered from
the Geldermalsen, an immense cargo ship of the
Dutch East India Company that sank off the coast
of Jakarta in 1751. This recovery, too, was made by
Hatcher, and items from both cargos sold in highly
publicised auctions in the Netherlands in the 1980s.
For both these pieces, Dhillon had specially designed
cabinets and lighting to truly show off their value
.
Dhillon’s passion for collecting porcelain decreased
after a fire broke out in his house in 1996 and burned
down much of his collection. Heartbroken at first,
he gradually recovered from this loss and rebuilt
his collection. According to his family, Dhillon’s,
porcelain collection enriched his life. It energised
him and brought a sense of peace into a life which
had been full of hardship.
Dhillon was born on 6 July 1941 in Jubbarhatti,
Himachal Pradesh. His mother, who was already
ailing from tuberculosis, passed away a month after
his birth. Dhillon’s father, a doctor in the Indian army,
was at that time a prisoner of war in Singapore, and
he, along with his older sister, were split up and cared
for by relatives of the family. At the age of five, he was
enrolled at the Lawrence School in Sanawar, a place
he called home on multiple occasions throughout
his life. When he came of age, Dhillon joined the
National Defence Academy. In a tragic turn of events,
Dhillon accidentally sustained a bullet shot to his
leg during training, and the resulting injury became
so severe that his leg had to be amputated. He left
the army with a medical discharge and enrolled at
a reputed college in Srinagar for his undergraduate
studies in English. During one of his trips back from
visiting his sister, the bus Dhillon was travelling in fell
into the river Chenab. Miraculously, and despite his
disability, Dhillon alone survived this tragic accident.
Dhillon later went on to complete his post graduate
and doctorate studies in English at Lucknow
University, and continued there as a professor
of English for four years. In 1971, during a visit to
Sanawar, he was asked to join the Lawrence School
as an English teacher, a role he performed for 16 years.
In 1987, he joined the Yadavindra Public School,
Patiala as its headmaster. In 1995, he returned to the
Lawrence School as headmaster, and five years later
joined the Yadavindra Public School, Mohali in the
same capacity. In 2010, he retired to Dharampur,
and acted as the advisor on the Board of Governors
at the two Yadavindra Public Schools.
At the same time, Dhillon was also establishing
himself as a writer. He began writing short stories
during his years as a teacher and published his first
novel,
The Wayside Tree
in the 1970s. Over time
he published several books such as
The Lives &
Teachings of the Sikh Gurus
,
Love Stories from the
Punjab, First Raj of the Sikhs: The Life and Times of
Banda Singh Bahadur
and
Janamsakhis
:
Ageless
Stories, Timeless Values
. He received an award
from Punjabi University in Patiala in May 2015 for
his contribution to Punjabi literature and culture.
Dr. Harish Dhillon is remembered by those closest
to him as an adventurous man with a keen eye
for priceless art and antiquities. The lots in this
catalogue are testament to this passion.
Dr. Harish Dhillon took great pride in his collection of Chinese porcelain collection. His home in Dharamshala, furnished and painted to
accentuate pieces from the collection, reflects his passion.
Image courtesy of the family