Home POLITICS Ismail Merchant's private collection

Ismail Merchant's private collection

East meets West is the theme of Ismail Merchant's private art collection, to be sold at Christie's South Kensington on Oct. 7.

Merchant, who died in 2005, was the Oscar-winning producer born in Mumbai whose lengthy collaboration with director James Ivory resulted in films such as Shakespeare Wallah, and the adaptations of E.M. Forster's A Room with a View and Henry James' The Golden Bowl. Merchant Ivory has become shorthand for visually rich period pieces with an array of stellar British actors, including Vanessa Redgrave, Ben Kingsley and Emma Thompson. Article Controls There are over 180 lots sourced from Merchant's various residences, ranging from porcelain and paintings to shawls and furniture. Many pieces have Indian origins; some are East Asian; some Middle Eastern; and some classically European. A large part of the sale is an amalgam showing the encounter between India and the West--just as in many of Merchant's films