Cohen sold the rare piece of Chinese export porcelain, circa 1740, to a US private collector earlier this month for a new museum for more than £250,000.
The tureen, which has been on the front cover of his most recent catalogue, called Baroque & Roll, was purchased by Cohen in Sweden two years ago.
Cohen said he had been trying to find the tureen since he read Michel Beurdeley’s book Porcelain of the East India Companies (published in 1962) which he read in the 1970s when he started his career.
He added: “From then on this tureen was my Holy Grail, the piece I would seek and never find but, after more than forty years, it has now taken pride of place in my catalogue.”
One Of A Pair
Cohen had actually missed out on buying the tureen eight years ago at auction and believed he would never own it. However three years ago he discovered it was one of a pair made for a Swedish family in the mid 18th century.
The pair had been separated after different parts of the family inherited them.
The tureen that sold at auction eight years ago has since been on display at the Met museum in New York in its Global by Design exhibition which featured 60 “exquisite and unusual pieces” of Chinese porcelain from the late 16th to the 18th century from the R. Albuquerque Collection.
Once Cohen found the missing pair in Sweden he bought it for a “considerable sum”. He then took the tureen to the Palm Beach Jewellery, Art & Antiques Show and began discussions with a US client. The sale was completed this month.
The tureen and cover are 15in (38cm) high and the stand is 17in (43cm) long, decorated in famille rose enamels.
Cohen explains: “This tureen is one of the most important and impressive pieces of Chinese export porcelain made in the 18th century, a masterpiece of the highest quality both in modelling and decoration.”
