Wilfred Stuart Delano Barnes, known throughout his life as Stuart, moved to Hong Kong from the UK with his wife Janet in 1962, at the start of his twenty-two-year overseas career, during which he formed his collection of Chinese works of art.

A Chartered Accountant by training, Stuart had worked for Peat Marwick Mitchell in London before joining the distinguished trading house Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong. During his career with Jardines he held a number of senior positions, serving for much of his time as Group Financial Controller and ultimately as Financial Director for the company in Hong Kong and China. His work involved extensive travel throughout the Jardines world and gave him a close familiarity with Asia during a period of remarkable change.

Soon after his arrival, Stuart began collecting Chinese art and antiques.  Over the following two decades he acquired works principally from dealers in Hong Kong, selecting each piece personally and with growing knowledge and confidence. His interest was scholarly as well as aesthetic: he built an extensive reference library on Chinese art, catalogued the collection carefully and displayed it in purpose-built cabinets.  His sons often smile at their vivid memories of watching their father's increasingly ruthless haggling with less shrewd Cat Street dealers in order to acquire a particularly prized object.

The collection reflects both the opportunities available to a knowledgeable collector in Hong Kong during the 1960s to the early 1980s and Stuart’s own developing interests. It is particularly strong in early Chinese ceramics, including Han and Tang pottery, Song and Yuan celadons and Qingbai wares, alongside Ming blue-and-white porcelain, later Qing ceramics, jade and hardstone carvings. Among its most important works is an early Qing landscape scroll inscribed Wang Chien, for which original purchase documentation survives.

Stuart also immersed himself in Hong Kong life, notably through the Hong Kong Cricket Club, where he served for many years on the committee and played an important role in securing the Club’s future, following its move from Chater Road.

A fine Chinese blue and white 'Water Margin' sleeve vase, Chongzhen period (1628–1644)

The most remarkable lot from the collection is a fine Chinese blue and white 'Water Margin' sleeve vase. Its tall cylindrical body is deftly painted in cobalt blue with a continuous scene from Water Margin, depicting the battle at Mount Mangdang.

'Subduing the Demons of Mount Mangdang'「芒碭山降魔」is a famous episode from the classic Chinese novel Water Margin「水浒传」. A sorcerer named Fan Rui, nicknamed the 'Demon King of Chaos', occupies Mount Mangdang alongside his fierce lieutenants, Xiang Chong and Li Gun. Bold and ambitious, Fan Rui boasts that he will conquer and annex the Liangshan Marsh. Outraged by this arrogance, Song Jiang, the leader of Liangshan, arrives with reinforcements, including the Daoist wizard Gongsun Sheng. Fan Rui attempts to use his sorcery to summon winds and rocks against Liangshan. Gongsun Sheng counters by unleashing the 'Orthodox Method of Five-Thunder Heavenly Mind' 「五雷天心正法」, a powerful Daoist magic that shatters Fan Rui's spells and traps his army in a mystical stone formation.

The present vase stands as a superb testament to the peak of narrative ceramic production during the politically tumultuous Chongzhen reign (1628-1644). With the decline of imperial financial oversight at Jingdezhen, private kilns rapidly pivoted to accommodate the sophisticated, literary tastes of affluent urban merchants and the literati elite. This social shift directly fuelled a creative boom in porcelain decoration inspired by popular woodblock illustrations from vernacular fiction and drama. Characters from masterworks like Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and The Romance of the Western Chamber were meticulously painted onto vases and jars.

With twenty seven figures depicted on the vase, the dynamic scene rendered across the cylindrical walls of this vessel brings to life the magical confrontation at Mount Mangdang. It captures the dramatic climax where the rogue sorcerer Fan Rui, holding a demon-faced shield, is utterly subdued by Liangshan's preeminent Daoist strategist and other Liangshan heroes. The anonymous painter has masterfully adapted a flat woodblock composition onto the continuous circular surface of the sleeve vase, exploiting the physical layout to stretch out the action.

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