Robert Lockhart Hobson CB (26 July 1872''Ireland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1620–1911''''

1939 England and Wales Register The National Registration Act 1939 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The initial National Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament as an emergency measure at the start of the World War II, Second World War. The Act provided ...

'' – 5 June 1941) was a British civil servant and antiquarian. He was keeper of the Department of Ceramics and Ethnography at the British Museum and an authority on Far Eastern ceramics. He was noted for his cataloguing which ''The Times'' described as establishing firm facts for what had previously been "surmise and unproved tradition" and he was highly influential through his writing in the elevation of Chinese ceramics from craft works to the status of objects of fine art. He was president of the

Oriental Ceramic Society The Oriental Ceramic Society (OCS) is one of the leading international societies for the study and appreciation of Asian art, with a special interest in ceramics. However its wider focus is the study and appreciation of all aspects of oriental a ...

from 1939 to 1942.

Early life

Robert Hobson was born at Lambeg, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1872, the son of Reverend Canon William Thomas Hobson of the Isle of Man and Eliza Ann Dalglish. He had a brother, William Dalglish Hobson, born in 1886. He was educated at

St John's School, Leatherhead Seek those things which are above , established = , closed = , type = Public SchoolIndependent school Co-educational day, weekly and flexi boarding , religious_affiliation = Church of England , p ...

, and received his advanced education at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, from where he graduated with a first-class degree in classics in 1893.

Marriage

In 1900, Hobson married the Honourable Daisy Denison, daughter of Rear-Admiral Hon. Albert Denison and granddaughter of

Albert Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough Albert Denison Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough, KCH, FRS, FSA (21 October 1805 – 15 January 1860) was a British Whig Party politician and diplomat, known as Lord Albert Conyngham from 1816 to 1849. Early life and career Born Albert Denison ...

. In 1938, Daisy was granted the rank of a Baron's daughter which would have been hers had her father survived to succeed as Lord Londesborough. She died in 1967.

Career

Hobson worked as a school teacher for four years before joining the British Museum in 1897. He served as a lieutenant in the Civil Service Rifles, part of the London Regiment, from 1914 to 1919. In 1921 he was made keeper of the Department of Ceramics and Ethnography which was formed for him."Oriental antiquities/Far eastern art" by Craig Clunas in He gave evidence to the

Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries The Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries, which produced its final report in 1930, was a royal commission into the operation of museums and galleries in the United Kingdom. The Standing Commission on Museums and Galleries was establ ...

. He was appointed a member of the Order of the Bath in 1931. In 1934 he was made keeper of Oriental Antiquities and Ethnography, a position he held until his retirement in 1938R L Hobson (Biographical details).
British Museum. Retrieved 11 February 2017. at which time he was presented with the gift of a portrait by Francis Dodd RA. He was closely associated with the China exhibitions at

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. Toda ...

in 1909–1910, 1915–16, and 1935–1936 the last of which was visited by over 401,000 people. He was one of the founding members of the Oriental Ceramic Society, and after his retirement, chairman (or president) from 1939 to 1942 in succession to George Eumorfopoulos. His successor was Sir Alan Barlow.

Writing

Hobson completed two standard catalogues of the English pottery and porcelain in the British Museum. The catalogue of pottery was the first to include a section on

medieval pottery In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

of which the British Museum was a leader in establishing a reference collection. He wrote the entry on ceramics for the 1911 edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica'' and the entry on the Orientalist

Stephen Wootton Bushell Stephen Wootton Bushell CMG MD (28 July 1844 – 19 September 1908) was an English physician and amateur Orientalist who made important contributions to the study of Chinese ceramics, Chinese coins and the decipherment of the Tangut script. B ...

for the ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' (1912). He later turned his attention to far eastern ceramics and became a noted scholar of Qing dynasty works. He was one of the first to explicitly date the earliest blue and white porcelain to the Song dynasty when most scholars still placed it in the Ming period, indicating his awareness of the latest archaeological excavations. His ''The wares of the Ming Dynasty'' (1923) was described by John Alexander Pope as an early attempt at an "overall objective classification of Ming wares" and a "kind of landmark" as a more critical approach began to enter the field of Chinese ceramics and he was highly influential through his writing in the elevation of Chinese ceramics from craft works to the status of objects of fine art. He compiled a catalogue of the pottery and porcelain in the

George Eumorfopoulos George Aristides Eumorfopoulos (18 April 1863 Liverpool – 19 December 1939 Chelsea Embankment), was a British collector of Chinese, Korean and Near Eastern art. Life Eumorfopoulos was born at 43 Bedford Street South, Mount Pleasant, Merseys ...

collection which was published in six volumes from 1925 to 1928.Qing ceramics.
British Museum. Retrieved 11 February 2017.

Death and legacy

Hobson died at his home"Mr. R.L. Hobson", ''The Times'', 7 June 1941, p. 6. in Horsham on 5 June 1941. Venn, J.A. (1947
''Alumni cantabrigienses: A biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900 Part II from 1752 to 1900. Volume III Gabb-Justamond
'. Cambridge: University Press. p. 392. He was survived by his wife Daisy to whom probate was granted on an estate of £7,171 net. He received obituaries in the ''Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society'', ''

The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation sin ...

'', and ''The Times''.

Selected publications

* ''Catalogue of the collection of English pottery in the Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum.'' London, British Museum, 1903. * ''Catalogue of the collection of English porcelain in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum.'' British Museum, London, 1905. * ''Porcelain, oriental, continental and British: A book of handy reference for collectors.'' Constable, London, 1906. (2nd 1908) * ''Handbook of marks on pottery and porcelain.'' Macmillan, London, 1909. Revised editions 1912, 1919. (With William Burton (1863–1941))
''Worcester porcelain: A description of the ware from the wall period to the present day &c.''
Bernard Quaritch, London, 1910. * ''Catalogue of porcelain, furniture and other works of art in the collection of Lady Wantage &c.'' W.H. Fairbairns, Enfield, 1912. (With Oliver Brackett) * ''Chinese pottery and porcelain. An account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day''. Two volumes. Cassell and Co., London, 1915. Volume I
Volume II.
* ''Catalogue of the Frank Lloyd Collection of Worcester porcelain of the wall period''. British Museum, London, 1923. * ''The wares of the Ming Dynasty''. Ernest Benn, London, 1923. * ''The art of the Chinese potter.'' Ernest Benn, London, 1923. (With A.L. Hetherington) * ''The later ceramic wares of China: Being the blue and white, famille verte, famille rose, monochromes, etc., of the K'ang Hsi, Yung Cheng, Ch'ien Lung and other periods of the Ch'ing Dynasty.'' Ernest Benn, London, 1925. * ''The George Eumorfopoulos collection: Catalogue of the Chinese, Corean and Persian pottery and porcelain''. Six volumes. Ernest Benn, London, 1925–28. * ''Chinese porcelain & Wedgwood pottery, with other works of ceramic art &c.'' B.T. Batsford, London, 1928. (A record of the collection in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Vol. 2.) * ''Catalogue of the Leonard Gow Collection of Chinese porcelain''. George W. Jones, London, 1931. (Limited to 300 copies)Lot 359.
Christie's. Retrieved 14 February 2017. * ''Chinese ceramics in private collections''. Halton & Truscott Smith, 1931. (With Bernard Rackham & William King)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobson, Robert 1872 births 1941 deaths Military personnel from County Antrim Contributors to the Encyclopædia Britannica Companions of the Order of the Bath London Regiment officers People educated at St John's School, Leatherhead Employees of the British Museum British Army personnel of World War I Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Historians of East Asian art Art historians from Northern Ireland English curators Scholars and academics from County Antrim