Property from the Estate of Dr Arthur Spriggs
Lots 177-197

Dr Arthur Spriggs (1919-2015)

Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, Arthur Spriggs was a distinguished medical scientist for much of his very long life. He held a number of senior positions at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary and Churchill Hospital where he lectured and published extensively in his specialist field of cancer research. His early published research was accompanied by illustrations of cell preparations carefully drawn (using a microscope) by his accomplished water-colourist wife Gereth. Later in his career he pioneered the use of electron microscopy in the observation of chromosome anomalies and the detection of cancers, establishing the first regional screening service.

Arthur's personal interests extended to botany (he created and maintained a large 'natural' garden at his home); molluscs and snails (an indefatigable field worker, he must have surveyed every square kilometre of Oxfordshire during his long but active retirement); and, of course, Chinese porcelain, especially 17th century blue and white. A keen supporter for many years of the London-based Oriental Ceramic Society, he presented a ground-breaking lecture in 1965 which documented certain types of Chinese and Japanese porcelain featured in Western paintings between AD 1450-1700. Published in the 'Transactions', Vol.36, it stimulated further investigation into the handsome 'vanitas' oil paintings which greatly enhanced the houses of successful Netherlandish burghers during the 'Dutch Golden Age'.