In October, after 44 years in a storefront on London’s Brook Street, Sydney L. Moss, the renowned Asian art gallery, decamped to an elegant Georgian town house in Mayfair. Its director, Max Rutherston, the former head of the Sotheby’s Japanese department, says the move heralds a more discreet form of selling for the firm, founded in 1910 by Sydney Moss and still owned by his family. While the new premises are open to the public, Rutherston says the “large existing client base” may now enjoy more “intimate” service in period surroundings with state-of-the-art lighting.

The galleries were inaugurated on October 30 with two exhibitions that run through November 28: “Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On,” featuring netsuke from the Willi G. Bosshard collection, and “This Single Feather of Auspicious Light,” a show of some of the finest examples of Chinese literati painting and calligraphy from the Ming and Qing dynasties, assembled by the gallery’s former director Paul Moss, the founder’s grandson.

Although retired, Moss still has a burning passion for this genre, which he proclaims “the greatest, most beautiful, most profound in the world.” Notable works include an ink-brush scroll painting by the 16th-century master Lan Ying and a hand scroll in ink and colors on silk by the 17th-century fantasist Wu Pin. Moss has dubbed this labor of love “Gloria” after the star of the film Sunset Boulevard because, he quips, “It’s my swan song.” "New Digs" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2008 Table of Contents.