Rare Qing Dynasty enamel bowl set for auction in April

Before entering Idemitsu Museum's storage, the bowl once belonged to Henry M. Knight. Chow says Knight was a discerning collector who from the 1930s assembled a major collection of Chinese ceramics and other works of art.

He says Knight focused mainly on porcelains of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties; he bought largely from the London-based antique firm Bluett & Sons, including the bowl which he acquired in 1938 and owned until his death in 1971.

Roger Bluett (1925-2000), an influential antique dealer whose grandfather co-founded Bluett & Sons, once estimated that Knight accumulated perhaps the "best" collection of 18th-century porcelain items in Europe.

Bluett wrote that Knight "was fond of telling how it was my late father who told him to buy 'Chinese taste' porcelains. Their time would come, my father used to say, and how right he was."

Another heirloom in the formal collection of Qing court is a scroll comprised of 10 mountain-and-water ink paintings by Qian Weicheng (1720-72), a high-ranking official during Qianlong's reign and also, a favorite painter of the emperor.