Rosemary joined Sotheby's in 1976, first working as an assistant in the Japanese department and then in the European Portrait Miniature department, where she was a cataloguer. From 1984 she worked at Eskenazi Ltd., a West End dealer in Oriental art, and was involved in the preparation of catalogues for exhibitions of Japanese lacquer and netsuke. She is a senior associate of the New York gallery Scholten Japanese Art, edits a collectors' magazine and has published a book about netsuke.