BASIL ROBINSON was famed in the academic world for his work on Persian miniature painting, Japanese swords and prints.
Basil William Robinson was born in London in 1912, and in his early years showed a precocious interest in the arms and armour, and oriental collections, at the V&A. After attending Winchester College as an exhibitioner, he went up to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he read Greats. This was followed by a BLitt on the Persian miniature paintings in the Bodleian Library, a brief time as a prep school master and then, in 1939, appointment to the V&A staff.
He began work in the library, but was soon transferred to the department of metalwork. During the war he served in the Army in India, Burma and Malaya, returning to the department of metalwork, where he remained until his retirement in 1972, after which he was retained until 1976 to help to set up the Far Eastern department.
Robinson’s academic achievements were considerable. Although he was a Fellow of the British Academy, and at different times president of the Royal Asiatic Society and a member of the council of the British Institute of Persian Studies, he was essentially a scholar. His written contribution to scholarship was of the greatest importance in his fields of interest. A Primer of Japanese Sword Blades (1955), The Arts of the Japanese Sword (1961) and Kuniyoshi (1961) have remained standard works in their fields. Kuniyoshi: the Warrior Prints (1982) won the Uchiyama Memorial Prize of the Japan Ukiyoe Society.
His pioneering Persian Miniature Painting From Collections in the British Isles (1967) was complemented by a series of catalogues of the main British collections, those of the Bodleian Library (1958), the India Office Library (1976), the John Rylands Library (1980), and the Royal Asiatic Society (1998). In other books and articles he explored, and in many cases defined for the first time, particular areas of Persian painting, for example 15th-century Persian painting (especially the Turkoman style), the Indian Sultanate style, and the Astarabad Safavid style writing with equal facility on related subjects such as Qajar lacquer and enamel work. Robinson’s last work was The Persian Book of Kings: an Epitome of the Shahnama of Firdawsi (2002).
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Through his work, especially the catalogues, Robinson laid secure foundations for generations of scholars in the field of Persian miniature painting. There could be no greater tribute to the wide esteem in which he was held than the festschrift edited by Robert Hillenbrand, Persian Painting: From the Mongols to the Qajars: Studies in Honour of Basil W. Robinson (2000). Here 21 scholars of international standing, from many different countries and institutions in the Western world, provided a fitting tribute to his scholarship.
Robinson came from an Anglo-Catholic background, and his faith was formed and forged by the Book of Common Prayer, to which he remained deeply attached. Family prayers were a daily event, while at the church of St Mary, the Boltons, he sang with his family in the choir, acted as sacristan, and was a member of the PCC.
The depth and certainty of his faith permeated his life and his relationships. He never felt the need to put himself forward. He remained modest and unassuming, never imposing his views. Always hospitable, he provided for many a reservoir of wisdom and compassion, enriched by his characteristic humour and his well-known twinkle. With his pipe and unchanging dress-code — tweed jacket, waistcoat, and watch-chain, with his patient and unhurried approach, and his obvious integrity, he offered a deep sense of stability and security to those who came to consult him. He wore his scholarship lightly, and was always gentle with those of us who were less knowledgeable than him. He was generous in his friendships, as that with Colonel Yamada shows. Robinson had sought the help of the Japanese PoW in 1945 to catalogue the weapons captured at the Japanese surrender, an activity of mutual interest which led to a lifelong friendship.
For Robinson, life was to be enjoyed in all its richness, and that joy was to be shared. No more so than in his love of music, which he shared first with his family, teaching his children rounds and catches from their earliest years, and in wider context through the Aldrich Catch Club, which he founded more than 50 years ago. The Catch Club became a monthly event, the catches a mixture of the contemplative, the eschatological and the riotous, the event totally fun, supported by ample supplies of beer and wine, and one of Robinson’s famous casseroles.
By any standards Robinson was a great boon-companion. One friend and colleague recalled how, on a visit with him to Leningrad in the early 1970s, Robinson matched their Russian colleagues’ drinking capacity, even with pertsóvka, the drink said to have been beloved of Peter the Great — vodka with red chillies.
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During his long retirement Robinson shared his research work with his wife, Oriel, who provided photography of the miniature paintings in the collections they visited. He also passed on his love of culture to his two children, William, who for many years has headed the Islamic Department at Christie’s in London, and Alicia, who until recently was running Apsley House for the V&A.
Basil Robinson, scholar, was born on June 20, 1912. He died on December 29, 2005, aged 93.