A blue and white 'landscape' rouleau vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period | 清康熙 青花山水高士圖棒槌瓶

Weetman Dickinson Pearson (1856-1927), created 1st Viscount Cowdray in 1917, was highly active in a variety of pursuits, most notably as an oil industrialist and owner of the Pearson Conglomerate, a liberal M.P. for Colchester (1895-1910), President of the Airboard (1917-18) and a keen philanthropist. In 1914 the American ambassador in London remarked that ‘Cowdray could have owned Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia’ due to the extraordinary wealth he built up though his business projects, notably the Blackwell Tunnel in London and tunnels under the East River in New York, as well as his discovery of one of the world’s largest oil fields, the Potrero del Llano in Mexico. In 1909 Lord Cowdray purchased Dunecht House, a stately mansion which presides over a great Scottish estate in Gothic and Italian splendor to the west of the city of Aberdeen. He employed Ashton Webb to aggrandize the house and the large spaces were filled with décor and furnishing suited to the sumptuous style of the early 20th century, which included 16th and 17th century chimney pieces, inlaid paneling and Chinese porcelain.