Although William Kelly Simpson was best known as an Egyptologist, his collections reached far and beyond this realm.
One of the key features in his homes was a large collection of ceramics, which happened to be started decades earlier by his in laws who included Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and her daughter Abby Rockefeller Mauzé.   Through Mr. Simpson’s marriage to Marilyn Ellen Milton, the daughter of Abby Rockefeller Mauzé, he was endowed with a large portion of the collection.  There are items in the collection that were purchased at auction as well as through the best dealers in England and Europe.  The majority of the ceramics in the collection were English and European in origin, with fine examples of Derby, Chelsea and a great deal of Staffordshire, as well as many German wares and an extraordinary group of figural Delft.  The collection has generation upon generation of family provenance and featured prominently in the country house in Katonah.