The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in Sydney, Australia, has benefited from the donation of a collection of 16th-18th century artwork said to be worth around AUS$7m (£4.4m, €5m, US$7m).

Comprising more than 70 items, the Ken Reed bequest will - said Edmund Capon, AGNSW director - 'represent a most significant addition to the gallery's European collection'. Reed, a Sydney-based retired lawyer, says that he was inspired to create the collection by visits to the gallery as a child. It is to receive 25 old master paintings, 25 pieces of 18th-century porcelain and 22 pieces of 16th-17th century Italian maiolica.

Several of the pictures will complement the gallery's existing collection, with a Dutch banquet still life by Abraham van Beyeren set to become, according to Richard Beresford, senior curator of European art, one of the greatest still life paintings in its portfolio. The absence of any major example of Roman Baroque painting has been brought to an end with the receipt of Andrea Camassei's finished sketch for an altarpiece in St Peter's, Rome.

The gallery's representation of the British school will also be transformed by the addition of portraits by Lely, Romney and Hoppner, none of whom were previously included. The Italian maiolica includes an Urbino 'istoriato' plate showing a scene from Roman history dating from about 1545, such plates being said to represent the height of sophistication in Italian Renaissance ceramics. The Reed collection also includes a two-handled vase of c.1530-40 with the gold lustre decoration characteristic of Deruta. There are examples of wares from Montelupo, Pesaro, Faenza, Venice and Castelli d'Abruzzo.

The porcelain represents a selection of early pieces including important examples of the main German, French and English factories - Meissen, Vincennes-Sèvres and Chelsea. Among the highlights are an extremely rare Sèvres tea service of 1762 and a small white goat-and-bee jug from Chelsea, which is one of earliest pieces of porcelain produced in England. The pictures are to remain on show in the gallery's old courts until 16 January 2011 and will then return to the benefactor until the bequest takes effect. The ceramics, to be displayed alongside paintings of the same period, will remain on show.

Image: Siegfried Nugent