Richard Kan, Collector of Chinese Monochrome Porcelain

The name of your collection is Zhuyuetang. What does it refer to? I come from a family of tobacco entrepreneurs, established in 1907, when the Qing dynasty was still in power. This poetic name, freely inspired by the composition of the Chinese character “kan”, like my surname, means “Pavilion of Bamboo and the Moon.” It's a tribute to my forebears. What was your first purchase? Although I studied engineering at university, I've been fascinated by history and objets d’art since I was a teenager. In 1979, when I was 29, I fell for a Yixing teapot from the Ming dynasty [1368-1644—Ed.] made by potter Chen Chongmei. I still own it. Its unglazed, unadorned aesthetic appealed to me, as I have a liking for simple decoration and form. I paid €2,500 for it—quite a sum at the time.   Brush pot, porcelain, oxblood glaze, Jingdezhen kilns, Qing dynasty, Kangxi (1662-1722), h. 12.6 cm/4.7 in, diam 9.8 cm/3.5 in, Zhuyuetang collection. Richard W.C. Kan's Zhuyuetang Collection/photo: Barry Lui What does your collection include? It contains around 400 to 500 porcelains in a wide variety of forms: meiping and yuchun vases, ewers, pitongs, and narcissus bowls, to name but a few of these types, in…