Established in 1973 as a specialist in Chinese export porcelain, Cohen and Cohen is now in its 50th year. This year we are changing our business, reducing our inventory to a small range of important items while offering items from a small number of other fine collections.

     In addition we now bring over a 100 years of combined experience, offering services for Consultancy, Valuations and Peer to Peer Sales for serious collectors and institutions seeking the most important pieces. Many major museums have important pieces supplied by our company including The British Museum, The Groeninger Museum, The Peabody Essex Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, East India Company Museum l’Orient, Winterthur and Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

      We have also been instrumental in the formation of some of the World’s most important private collections. In the past we have shown at many Fairs including The Winter Antiques Show in New York, The Palm Beach Jewelry, Antiques and Fine Art show, and at TEFAF Maastricht though we will no longer be exhibiting in this way. All items on our website carry a guarantee of authenticity and that the condition will be as stated on enquiry.

       Having a degree in genetics and engaging in research at The University of East Anglia Michael quit academia and in 1973, together with Rosemary Pearce, opened a decorative antiques stall on Portobello Road, in the Notting Hill area of West London.

      Success led to expansion and the purchase of a gallery at the top end of Portobello Road where the ‘serious’ dealers had their premises. Having garnered expertise and renown in the field Michael was admitted to the BADA (British Antique Dealers Association) in 1984. In 1994 Michael married Ewa, already a dealer in Oriental Art, and the business became “Cohen & Cohen”.


      It was at this time they formulated their philosophy of buying from which they have not since wavered. Put simply they decided to buy as collectors rather than as dealers. Profit was not to be the sole motive; rather, they would buy only pieces that excited them. They were driven in their search by three standards: exceptional quality; rarity and historical interest - preferably all three together.


     Ewa encouraged a move to the more prestigious Kensington Church Street soon after the partnership was formed and also advocated for participation in the various English, European and United States Art Fairs, which included the London Ceramics Fair, Grosvenor House, TEFAF Maastricht, Masterpiece, The New York Ceramics Fair and The Winter Show. Michael was invited to take part in the vetting of Oriental Art at all of these shows and a number of others at which they did not exhibit.

     
Since 1999 most years have been marked by the production of a catalogue. Since 2000 these have been researched and written by Will Motley who has established himself as the leading authority on Chinese porcelain decorated with European subjects.

     In July 2013, having been on the council for a number of years, Michael was appointed chairman of the BADA, a post he held for nearly eight years, making him the longest serving chairman in the history of the association.


     After a number of years in Kensington Church Street the company was asked to do an exhibition at Partridge in Bond Street which led to an offer of permanent gallery space. Cohen & Cohen remained in London’s West End moving from Bond Street to Jermyn Street and finally to St James’s Place.

     Now Cohen & Cohen, having reduced their inventory, are moving in a new direction using over a hundred years of combined expertise to provide consultation services to serious collectors, museums, as well as valuation services and the facilitation of peer to peer sales for important items.

     Ewa was born and spent her childhood in Warsaw, Poland and studied law at Warsaw University. She arrived on London in 1969, where she enrolled in the Fine and Decorative Art course at the study centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Fascinated by ceramics, she was advised by her tutor to find a position as an assistant with a ceramic dealer. She succeeded, having been hired by the respected London dealer Peter Kemp for whom she worked for several years. In 1988, Ewa decided to strike out on her own, and started dealing in ceramics from a stand first on Portobello Road and later in Gray’s Market, off Bond Street.

      
In 1990, a chance meeting with Michael Cohen at Heathrow Airport, en route to a sale in Amsterdam, led to marriage and a new business partnership in 1994.

       Will gained a degree in Biology at Durham University and after a career in teaching, joined Cohen & Cohen in 1999 where he developed a keen interest in the stories connected with Chinese export porcelain - in particular the exchange of design sources between East and West, spending many hours tracking down source prints for Western designs on 18th century Chinese export art. 


      Will has researched and written the Cohen & Cohen catalogues since 2000 and, with Michael Cohen, wrote Mandarin and Menagerie, a book about Chinese export porcelain figures based on the James E Sowell collection.


      He continues to work on his research into the print sources for Chinese export porcelain and other materials and is establishing a reference collection of these prints.