Sir William Henry Bennett, KCVO (1852 - 1931), was an eminent surgeon, of 3 Hyde Park Place, London. He was elected Fellow of several learned societies (RCS England, Royal Society of Medicine, the Zoological and Horticultural Societies). He published on surgical subjects and his appointments included Examiner in Surgery at Cambridge University, Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery at St George’s Hospital, and Surgeon-in-Chief for St John’s Ambulance Brigade. For his services to sick & wounded of Boer War, he was made a KCVO in 1901.
He collected paintings, furniture, Chinese porcelain (from Duveen, 1905-1906) & bronzes. The major part of his Chinese collections was sold in 1906. Gorer is said to have been instrumental in taking the best of this collection to the U.S. where it formed the nucleus of some of the finest American collections.
Manuscript sources
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Duveen Client Summary Books 1894-1918 (copy at the Getty Research Institute)
Published sources
American Art Association, Sir William Bennett, ‘Distinguished Paintings…Rare Bronzes, etc’, Sale no.5971, Friday 29 & Sat 30 April 1932, by order of Lady Bennett, Anderson Galleries, 30 East 57th Street, New York. Lots 77-125 are Chinese works of art.
Gorer, Edgar, ‘A collection of rare old Chinese porcelains collected by Sir William Bennett, K.C.V.O’. Purchased & exhibited by Gorer, London, May-June 1910.
‘Who Was Who’, Vol 3,1929-40, pp.95-96. |
