Gerald Roberts Reitlinger (1900-1978), writer and art collector, read History at Christ Church, Oxford, following brief service in the Middlesex Regiment. In the winter of 1921-1922 he travelled to Paris to study painting and continued his formal art training after graduation at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and later at the Westminster School of Art. In the following years he exhibited paintings but decided against a career as an artist.

In the early 1930s Reitlinger took part in two archaeological expeditions to Iraq, sponsored by Oxford University, fostering an interest in Islamic and Oriental ceramics. He travelled extensively in Persia and Turkish Armenia, and visited the province of Yunnan in China. He was the author of numerous publications and articles on art, antiques and the economics of the art market.

During his lifetime Reitlinger acquired a large collection of ceramics and other works of art, including over 2000 pieces of Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, and European pottery, as well as a number of Persian and Mughal paintings. These were bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.