The Royal Collection includes some of the most historic examples of eastern arts now in the western world. With more than 2,000 items distributed among the royal residences in England and Scotland, this collection presents a rich cross-section of the porcelains, jades, lacquer and other works of art produced in China and Japan and brought here over a period of several centuries, reflecting the West's long-standing appetite for rarities from distant lands. A striking feature of the collection is the mounting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of many objects in gilt bronze: the mounts themselves, made in French and British workshops, are often of superb quality and of great historical importance and will be published here for the first time.