A CHINESE PALE-CELADON JADE 'DRAGON' BELT HOOK

Qing Dynasty, 18th Century

清十八世紀 清白玉龍紋帶鉤

Carved and pierced in high relief to depict a slender chilong dragon crawling along the curved shaft, the latter terminating in a ferocious dragon's head,

12cm long

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PROVENANCE:

Property of a Lady; Acquired by her father in Hong Kong during the 1950's.

來源：

女士藏品；其父親於1950年代得於香港

Reginald Trueman was a originally missionary who first arrived in Hong Kong in 1953 but quickly became involved in setting up the first Chinese speaking University given his linguistic talents and being versed in Cantonese and Japanese. Ultimately, he returned to the UK in 1961. Reginald began his studies at Kings College, Cambridge University in 1941 to read linguistics after winning a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School, the only son of non-conformist working class parents. He completed only his first year before being called up for the army. An injury during early training ruled out active service and, so he always said, thereby saved his life. Reg was transferred to Bletchley Park where he worked on Japanese. He returned to Cambridge in 1945 and graduated in 1947. He trained for Holy Orders in Ely, then at the Union Seminary in New York. While in America he and his wife took a trip to the deep South, and the images of segregation that he met there were to influence him for the rest of his life. His working life consisted of curacy in Bolton, followed by eight years as a missionary priest in Hong Kong; on return to Britain teaching Greek in the Department of Theology of King’s College London, teaching English to Chinese boys in Newcastle, and three years teaching theology in Lesotho. While in London he helped Desmond Tutu, then a young postgraduate at KCL, to find accommodation and they remained lifelong friends. In retirement in Hampshire he was able to indulge his first love of languages, teaching at local schools, and then spending many years with an adult class learning Russian.