Asia Week episode 8 Two Rare Pieces of Chinese Art at J.J. Lally & Co.

#ChineseAntiqueMasterpieces"James Lally has been an active participant in the Chinese art market for more than 45 years. He was a director of Chinese works of art at Sotheby’s in New York and Hong Kong from 1970, and in 1983 he was named president of Sotheby’s in North America. In 1986 he founded J. J. Lally & Co. and mounted an inaugural exhibition which was sold out in the first week. Since then the gallery has established an advisory service and presented a series of successful special exhibitions each year, and a constant display of fine Chinese ceramics, bronzes, jades, sculpture and various works of art is maintained throughout the year. J. J. Lally & Co. is widely recognized as one of the finest Chinese art galleries in the world and James Lally is acknowledged as one of America’s preeminent experts on Chinese works of art and the international market for Chinese art.


Janos Szekeres was a scientist, an inventor, an aviator, a businessman and a family man. The outline of his life reads like a classic American success story. When his success in business gave him greater resources for collecting art, he first formed a collection of Post-Impressionist paintings, which he had always loved, but as business affairs brought him back to Asia he once again began to visit the antiques shops looking for Chinese art, and soon he had a significant collection of Chinese snuff bottles. His interest and sophistication grew rapidly and eventually he served on the Board of Directors of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society and on the Chinese Art Collections Committee of the Harvard University Art Museums. A trip to China in 1982 visiting Chinese art museums, kiln sites and monuments reinforced a wider interest in Chinese ceramics and works of art.
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