porcelain

Next to the mannequin is a small black vanity desk and mirror with makeup and porcelain wishbones filling the table’s surface.

Chan opens the wooden gate and ushers me into a sanctuary of his creation: a yard flanked by a tall tree, a worn picnic bench and a Chinese porcelain table and stools.

David's lounge is a riot of colour – on the floor of his living room are porcelain figurines, hundreds of yellowed newspapers and, balanced across the back of his settee, several thousand Barbie dolls.

Three items were seized - a rare pomegranate vase; a doucai-style wine cup and a porcelain bowl - and had a combined insured value of £2.8m.

A couple dozen of the porcelain snow-baby figurines from Kathi’s collection, which numbered in the hundreds, survived the inferno even though the shelves they were displayed on burned.