SUCCESSFUL Liverpool businessman Clive Collins spent years amassing a prized collection of Chinese porcelain but only visited the country once – to study rhododendrons.

He bought what he liked without regard to passing taste or ceramic fashion.

And that determination to follow his instincts saw the collection make £1.5m, almost double the forecast at Christie’s in London, when it was auctioned off in a recent sale.

Marco Almeida, one of the two specialists in charge of the sale, said: “The strong success of the Collins collection, which inspired competitive bidding, was a wonderful tribute to a passionate collector.”

Mr Collins built up his holding over almost 50 years.

He was born in the city and attended the Liverpool Institute before service in RAF Coastal Command during World War II.

He then ran the family business, an ailing paper bag company, but quickly saw the potential of polythene as a new packing material and to learn more about it went to America.

His son, Neil, said: “By hard work and luck, he found an American who had served in Britain during the war and had been impressed by the resilience of the British.

“The result was a licence, on very favourable terms, to make polythene film in Britain in 1955.”

The polythene bag business was sold in 1963 and Mr Collins then became chairman of a small electronics company which was also later sold to De La Rue, the banknote printers. The funds gave him the ability and time to expand the collection.

He bought a number of jades but in recent years concentrated on ceramics, and said he learned more from his mistakes than from purchases that became valuable treasures.