Adam's FINE ASIAN ART Part I 28th & Part II 29th June 2022

Fine Asian Art | 28-29 & 30 June 2022 17 Additional information and photographs for all lots can be found at www.adams.ie ERNESTO CARLOS TORNQUIST (1824-1908) A selection of items from the Tornquist collection ⒸDR Born in Buenos Aires in 1842, Ernesto Carlos Tornquist (1842–1908) was a prominent Argentinian businessman and a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Head of a diversified business empire, he is known to have played a key role in helping to link Argentina with the trading and financial systems of the first world and founded, amidst other things, the Torn- quist Bank, the Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires (today called the Marriott Plaza Hotel) as well as two cities named after his family’s name (Tornquist Partido and Tornquist City). A member of a family with roots in Sweden and Germany, he was the son of Jorge Pedro Ernesto Tornquist (1801-1876), the consul of Bremen in Montevideo. In 1874, Ernesto Carlos Tornquist took over the running of his brother-in-law’s company which was now re- named Ernesto Tornquist y Cia. He then diversified the activities of the company (initially focusing on ex- porting wool and leather and importing agricultural machinery) to include investment in sugar, cold-storage, railways etc. A person of influence, Ernesto Carlos Tornquist is also known to have played a crucial role in helping to avoid a war between Argentina and Chile in 1902 by managing the British mediation in the border dispute and by strongly opposing the bellicose Foreign Minister Estanislao Zeballos (1854-1923). He also helped to resolve a conflict with Brazil. Throughout the years, he maintained a close friendship with Argentina presidents Julio A. Roca (1843-1914) and Carlos Pellegrini (1846-1906). He once owned an hôtel particulier in Paris where he would spend a few months each year with his family. A testimony of these regular stays in the French capital is a vitrified photograph of his nine childs taken by Mathieu Deroche (1837-?), a French photographer and miniaturist. There, he would visit antique dealers and attend public auctions thereby assembling an important collection notably (but not only) of Asian Art.