LEE MAN FONG (Indonesia 1913-1988)

In the private collection of Oei Tiong Ham, the legendary sugar baron of Java born in Semarang, Indonesia in 1866. Thence by descent to the present owner. Oei Tiong Ham was one of the wealthiest men in Southeast Asia around the turn of the 20th century. A legendary sugar baron and head of Oei Tiong Ham Concern, the largest Chinese conglomerate in pre-war Asia, Oei Tiong Ham started a bank alongside his steamship and wholesale businesses. Instrumental in expanding trade between the Indies and China, he was an astute businessman widely admired by the colonial, indigenous and foreign business communities in Southeast Asia. A noted man of culture, elegance and a patron of the arts, Oei Tiong Ham's legacy lives on today in Singapore where a road and a park have been named in honour and memory of him.