An ongoing exhibition, Graces of Song Wares, features ceramic, gold, silver, bronze and lacquer items from Hong Kong collector Mak Po-tai's trove. [Photo/China Daily]

During his travels, Mak has brought various kinds of teas picked from trees in Southwest China's Yunnan province, said to be of hundreds of years old. He uses these precious leaves to make tea for friends who visit a display of his antique collection now on at Peking University.

Mak has 280 ceramic, gold, silver, bronze and lacquer items on display at an exhibition titled Graces of Song Wares. It runs through March at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology.

In his study of tea sets, Mak was impressed by and came to focus on products of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), whose aesthetic pursuit of simplicity and refinement is considered a high point in Chinese history.

Mak also collects items from the Liao (907-1125), Jin (1115-1234) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties that reveal cultural influences of the Song and Tang dynasties.

"I like Song ware because it encapsulates a strong literati temperament," Mak tells China Daily.