Edgar Worch was born in Kassel, Germany. His uncle had already been a prominent dealer in Chinese art in Paris, where he resided until the outbreak of World War I, when all of his property was confiscated by the French. Edgar Worch subsequently moved to Germany, and following the end of the war, set up his own business in Chinese art in Berlin and soon became one of the world's leading dealers and connoisseurs in this field. He had already made several trips to China, Japan and the United States, where he met many of the world's leading collectors, museum directors and curators. Important works of Chinese art which he sold soon found their way into the foremost museums and private collections in both Europe and the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Musée Guimet, Paris, and the collections of Charles L. Freer, Mrs. Eugene Meyer and John D. Rockefeller III, to mention but a few.