Edinburgh-based Lyon & Turnbull announced the top lot in its inaugural Hong Kong auction was the Thornhill Stem Cup, a stunning Ming Xuande period piece, sold on behalf of Staffordshire University.  After a long bidding battle the 600 year old Stem Cup eventually sold for a premium inclusive HK$ 41,560,000 (approximately £3.6million in May 2016).

The Stem Cup was the highlight of a specially curated sale of Chinese Works of Art produced in-conjunction with the company's sister saleroom Freeman's of Philadelphia, America's oldest auction house. The Stem Cup's journey to Hong Kong began at Asian Art in London in November 2015 - with its first public exhibition for 20 years - followed by a trip to both Philadelphia and New York in the USA in March before travelling to Hong Kong in perfect time for the prestigious Asian Week Hong Kong festival this May.  A tour that provided an international platform for this important piece that spread the story of the Thornhill Collection around the world.

The Stem Cup was the most valuable of 270 items bequeathed to the Staffordshire University by Mr Ernest Thornhill on his death in 1944, having originally been sent there during wartime to safeguard the collection. Upon rediscovering the collection, which has been hidden away in storage for a significant number of years, the University appointed Lyon & Turnbull to sell the Stem Cup so that it can raise funds to build a permanent secure new home for the remainder of the collection at its Stoke-on-Trent campus. This resource centre will enable students to access the collection for their study, complying with the original bequest and wishes of Mr Thornhill.

Ernest Thornhill was a pharmacist from London who collected Oriental ceramics. He donated several pieces to the British Museum as well as the then North Staffordshire Technical College, which later became Staffordshire University in 1992.