Name Soame Jenyns Role Author | Died 1976 Education Eton College | |
Books Later Chinese Porcelain, Ming Pottery and Porcelain | ||
Roger Soame Jenyns (1904–1976), who usually wrote his name simply as Soame Jenyns was a British art historian, known as an expert on East Asian ceramics.
Contents
Roger Soame Jenyns was educated at Eton and at Magdalene College of Cambridge University. In 1926 he joined the Hong Kong Civil Service. In Hong Kong, he became one of the valuable contributors to the newly established journal, The Hong Kong Naturalist. His articles would often touch on the cultural role of South China's animals and plants.
In 1931, Jenyns left Hong Kong for England, to take up a job at the British Museum, where he served as the Assistant Keeper of Oriental Antiquities until 1967. In 1935 he published a well-received book on Chinese painting; later on, he authored several books on Chinese ceramics and jades in which he described many items from the museum's collection.
In 1936, Roger Soame Jenyns inherited the Bottisham Hall estate, which two centuries earlier had been owned by his remote relative, the writer and politician Soame Jenyns.
Family
Soame Jenyns married Anne Thomson Berridge on 24 April 1941. They had two sons.