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Victoria Finlay

The first big Chinese art show at the Royal Academy in London since the Genius Of China exhibition in 1972 has been lent by a Hong Kong collector, with the slightly less catchy title of 100 Masterpieces Of Imperial Chinese Ceramics From The Au Bak Ling Collection, 12th To 18th Centuries.

 Last time Londoners were treated to jade burial suits; now they have a chance to marvel at Ming vases in exquisitely mirrored cabinets.

 Au Bak-ling's porcelain collection was shipped out of Hong Kong before the handover, when many collectors feared Chinese antiquity laws might be applied, and their property banned from export.

 That he should lend 100 of his top pieces to the academy until December 20 is, according to head of Sotheby's Julian Thompson, 'tremendously exciting'.

 Mr Au - a self-taught businessman who started work at eight - is quite a colourful character who made much of his wealth through publishing educational textbooks.

 School textbooks are a particularly lucrative area of publishing in Hong Kong because the text changes so often, and students coming into new classes often have to buy new books, rather than relying on second-hand ones.

 Since the mid-1970s, Mr Au has been putting together a collection of Chinese porcelain, now said to be the best of its kind in private hands.

 Mr Thompson explained how Mr Au's collecting methods are quite different from other Hong Kong collectors like T T Tsui - who has his own museum, although his collection is much reduced after a series of 'anonymous' auctions at Christie's.

 'T T Tsui's idea was a complete collection of Chinese art from the Neolithic period to now; Au Bak-ling wanted only objects from great periods.' This leads to a collection that is possibly less scholarly but more glittering.

 The porcelain on show is mainly from the early Ming (particularly the 15th-century Xuande and Yongle periods) and the Qing Dynasty's peachy famille rose ware.

 However, a highlight is the celadon Ru-ware of the Northern Song Dynasty, created for the early 12th-century emperor Huizhong.



Rare look at priceless porcelain