Blue-and-white stem cup. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A blue-and-white stem cup which bears wing dragons and was made during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) will be auctioned in Hong Kong on May 31. It has a pre-sale estimate of $2.85 million. The cup is from the collection of the Staffordshire University in Staffordshire, England. It was donated to the university along with 269 other antiquities by Ernest Thornhill, a London-based pharmacist, in 1944.

The university hopes the auction will generate enough funds for it to build a museum on campus to house the rest pieces from the Thornhill collection.

Besides the cup, dozens of Chinese antiques including jade pieces and furniture will also be auctioned.

Chinese jade pieces to be auctioned. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The auction is being jointly staged by Lyon and Trunbell, an auction house based in Scotland, and Freeman's, an auction house from Philadelphia, in the United States.

The sale will mark the two auctioneers' maiden entry into Hong Kong and their attempt to reach more Asian and Chinese collectors.

A preview of the lots will be held over May 28-30 at Hong Kong's Liang Yi Museum.