SARASOTA, FLORIDA.- Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, an exhibition of approximately 250 of the finest objects from the collection, which spans the history of Chinese ceramics from the Neolithic period in 2500 B.C. to the 19th century, will be exhibited from January 25 to April 27, 2003 in the West Galleries of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. The ceramics will be on view for the first time since Ira and Nancy Koger gave the collection to the Ringling Museum in 2001.

Assembled by Nancy and Ira Koger over a period of 40 years, the internationally known collection includes exceptional examples of Chinese earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.

Seventy-two objects on loan to the Ringling from the Koger�s private collection also will accompany the Museum�s objects.

"The exhibition presents an encyclopedic collection that shows the development of Chinese potters over nearly 5,000 years of human history," said Dr. Aaron De Groft, Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Ringling Museum. "It offers a comprehensive overview of some of the finest Chinese ceramics in America-objects seldom seen in Florida or the southeast."

Exhibition highlights include an elaborately glazed T�ang dynasty horse from the eighth century and a blue and white 15th-century Ming flask. Many of the most significant pieces in the exhibition are the blanc-de-Chine works. Blanc-de-Chine, French for "white of China", are all white works that were made in Dehua in southern China.

John Ayers, one of the world�s foremost authorities on Chinese ceramics, is curator of the exhibition. Ayers is the former head of the Far Eastern Art department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Ayers is also the former President of the Oriental Ceramic Society, as well as the author of several books on Chinese ceramics. Ayers is currently cataloguing the English Royal family�s Chinese art collection.

Ayers has curated several exhibitions of Chinese ceramics, including the exhibition Blanc de Chine: Divine Images in Porcelain at the China Institute Gallery in New York from September 19 to December 7, 2002. The Ringling Museum of Art loaned 35 rare works of blanc-de-Chine porcelain from its Koger Collection to the 83-piece New York exhibition. "Loans like this promote and enhance the Museum�s collections on a national and international level," said Executive Director John Wetenhall.