Finest Chinese porcelains expected to fetch over $28 million

Chenghua blue and white "palace" bowl from Ming Dynasty [Photo provided to China Daily]

One of the finest Chinese porcelain collections in history will be put up for auction, with an overall estimated price of over 20 million pounds ($28.8 million).

According to the UK-based Guardian's website, Sotheby's is selling about 100 objects acquired by the late British collector Roger Pilkington in the 1950s and 60s.

Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia said that this is a collection that people will remember for the next decades, and it is very rare to see such collections on the market.

Roger Pilkington is said to be one of the most active collectors during that time who has continued a British tradition that started in the 1920s and 30s.

The collection on sale spans one thousand years of Chinese porcelain production from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Chow said that porcelains from the early and late Ming Dynasty form the majority of the collection, and are extremely difficult to acquire nowadays.

Two highlights from the auctioned items will be a rare Chenghua blue and white "palace" bowl from the Ming Dynasty and an unusual blue and white holy water vessel. The bowl is estimated at 4 million to 6 million pounds ($5.8 million to 8.6 million), and the vessel 3 million pounds to 4 million pounds ($4.3 million to 5.8 million).

The vessel, from the Yongle period (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, was inspired by vessels from Tibetan Buddhism. According to Sotheby's, there are only two companion pieces in the world and the other one is in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The auction will be held in Hong Kong in early April and the collections will be on public view at Sotheby's London on January 17 and 18.