Solomon Adler shaking hands with Chairman Mao. Courtesy of PFS.
Roseberys presents The Solomon Adler Collection; a remarkable group of Chinese huanghuali furniture, imperial ceramics and paintings by celebrated Chinese Masters, assembled by Solomon Adler and family. Offered in Roseberys’ Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art auction on Tuesday 4 November, this is the first time the collection has appeared on the open market or been seen by the public.
Assorted objects from the Adler Family Collection
The collection was assembled by Solomon Adler (1909–1994), a former U.S. Treasury official accused of Soviet espionage. He went on to lecture at the University of Cambridge and later moved to China, where he spent the rest of his life working as an economist and translated the writings of Chairman Mao Zedong.
Bill Forrest, Head of Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art at Roseberys said “few collections unite art, 20th century politics and espionage quite like this one. Solomon Adler was a complex, singular figure who witnessed, and shaped, one of the most turbulent periods of the twentieth century. The objects he acquired reflect an extraordinary life and this collection of classical Chinese furniture is arguably the most significant to be offered for sale in Europe this year.”
Solomon Adler (1909–1994)
Solomon Adler
Solomon Adler was born into a Jewish family originally from Karelichy, Belarus. He was the fifth of ten children of Sinai Adler and Batya Rebecca Yoselovitch, who emigrated to the UK in 1900. Sinai was an ordained rabbi who made his living running a small shop.
Adler studied economics at Oxford and University College London and allegedly became involved in the British Communist movement while studying, before moving to the U.S. in 1935 for research. In 1936 Adler joined the U.S. Treasury’s Division of Monetary Research and Statistics, working closely with Harry Dexter White, a high-ranking treasury official who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union.
In 1940 Adler became a U.S. citizen and in the following year was assigned to China as Treasury representative. From 1941 to 1948, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Adler was the U.S. Treasury Department’s chief representative in China, moving between Chongqing, Nanking and Beijing. It was here that Adler began to develop his furniture collection, as well as ties to senior Communist Party leaders, including Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai.
Upon returning to the US, Adler was identified in investigations by Whittaker Chambers and defector Elizabeth Bentley as a Soviet intelligence source. He resigned from the Treasury in 1950 and relocated to the United Kingdom, teaching economics at Cambridge University and publishing The Chinese Economy in 1957.
Adler in China (1962-1994)
In 1962, at the height of the Cold War, Solomon Adler settled permanently in Beijing at the invitation of Zhou Enlai. He remained in China until his death in 1994, working as a translator of Mao Zedong’s writings, economic adviser, and, in accounts supported by both American and Chinese sources, a valued contributor to Communist Party intelligence.
Adler said of his time in China; “I have come to settle in China for three reasons: First, I have all along had great trust and confidence in the Chinese people and their leaders; second, I have all along had unshakeable faith in the cause of socialism; and third, I hope to stay in China for as long as possible and work for world peace and the friendship between the Chinese people and the peoples of the world.”
Highlights of the Solomon Adler Collection
Adler’s deep engagement with Chinese culture is reflected in his private collection of art and furniture. Principally focused on classical Chinese huanghuali furniture, the collection also includes ceramics and modern paintings.
Adler’s life was lived surrounded by art. A family member recalls that he knew prominent artists including William Roberts, who painted a portrait of his first wife, Dotty, as well as Jacob Kramer, a Russian-born painter and fellow member of the Leeds Jewish community. While in China, he reportedly befriended the explorer and scholar Aurel Stein, himself an avid collector of Buddhist art. Visitors to Adler’s Beijing home noted he maintained a distinguished selection of furniture there, including a large Tang dynasty camel figure.
A pair of rare Chinese huanghuali continuous yoke back armchairs (官帽椅 ), Qing dynasty, 18th century
The continuous yoke back armchair (often translated as “official’s hat chairs”) is a classical form in Chinese hardwood furniture. This form was used throughout the late Ming dynasty, where simplicity allowed for full appreciation of the beauty of the timber used. These chairs embody the Ming craftsmen’s search for simplicity and beauty in their restrained and refined construction.
There are a number of defining characteristics which make these examples particularly rare, most notably that they are constructed using square members; a pair of ‘square member’ chairs from the personal collection of Sir Joseph Hotung were sold in Sotheby’s Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2022, lot 19.
Bai Xueshi (白雪石, 1915–2011), also romanized as Bai Xue Shi, was a prominent Chinese guohua (traditional ink and colour) painter and educator active during the Mao era. In the 1960s, amid the Great Leap Forward and the lead-up to the Cultural Revolution, Bai's work exemplified the push towards "revolutionary realism" in traditional media. These paintings used fresh, naturalistic brushwork to capture vibrant scenes of production and joy, often in ink and colour on paper or scrolls, infusing Maoist ideas of class struggle and modernisation into guohua forms.
The building depicted in the present work is Ciping Former Residence, Mao Zedong’s primary residence. Jinggangshan, located in southwestern Jiangxi Province (straddling the border with Hunan), is a rugged mountain range often called the "Cradle of the Chinese Revolution".
Revolutionary tourism sites like Jinggangshan were popular for CCP-affiliated foreigners during the Cultural Revolution era (1966–1976), so it is conceivable that Adler was gifted this painting by a CCP associate given the importance of its subject matter in the context of 1960s China.
Lot 104: A Chinese Yixing robin's egg-glazed faceted teapot and cover, Qing dynasty, 18th century
The Robin's egg glaze of this Yixing ware teapot is one of the most distinctive innovations of the Imperial kiln during the 18th century. The earliest, securely-datable examples of vessels bearing this glaze are from the Yongzheng period. Its soft hues of blue are inspired by the elusive glazes of the Jun kilns, the copper splashes of which are thought to have also inspired the development of flambé glazes. This example is particularly rare as the predominant trend for Yixing wares was to leave them unglazed, showing off the area’s native clays. During the 18th century, a small number of these started to be applied with more experimental glazes, like the present ‘robin’s egg’ example. Very few survive compared to unglazed zisha, which makes them especially collectible today.
Exhibition & Auction
The collection will be exhibited at Bowman Sculpture Gallery in St James’s on November 1-2, during Asian Art in London 2025, before being offered at auction as part of Roseberys’ November series of Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art sales on Tuesday 4 November 2025.
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