I first met Jeffrey Montgomery one evening in 1990. A dinner companion had asked me to go to the new San Gottardo Bank building, designed by celebrated local architect Mario Botta, in Lugano to see an exhibition of Japanese mingei (folk crafts). Having just driven over the mountains from Lake Maggiore on a hot summer afternoon, I had the cool refreshments of an Italian restaurant far more in mind than art, and I have to confess that I was somewhat less than enthusiastic. Fortunately, social obligation prevailed, and I was rewarded with a selection of Japanese antique crafts of a quality I had seen previously only at The Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo and the Kurashiki Museum of Folk Craft. I also met their owner, Jeffrey Montgomery.
Since that auspicious encounter, I've developed a close friendship with Montgomery and his wife, Mariangela. Over the past three decades my own involvement with the growth of the collection has increased with sourcing new acquisitions, preparing exhibitions and writing. Today the Montgomery collection surpasses 800 items including around 300 ceramics, some 140 textiles and about 135 sculptures (from masks to images of Shinto deities), together with numerous lacquerware objects, paintings and traditional household furnishings.
