Chinese export porcelain
Treasure trove
A Brazilian collector puts his wares on display
The Economist, Nov 26th 2011
The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics: A Collector’s Vision (Three Volumes).
By Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos. Jorge Welsh Books; 1,204 pages; £900
WHEN the Portuguese began trading with China in the early 1500s, porcelain was one of the luxury goods they carried home in their ships. Only the Chinese knew how to make this delicate, often translucent, material that rings when you tap it. Demand for porcelain made expressly for foreigners spread as far afield as the Netherlands, Germany, Persia, the Ottoman empire, Japan and the young United States.
The Chinese manufacturers drew on traditional shapes, but quickly began to branch out, making Western tureens in the form of pigs, cockerels, blue-eyed horned oxheads and bug-eyed crouching crabs, as well as sauceboats shaped as whole multicoloured fish. It was a world apart from the traditional Chinese blue-and-white. The earliest commissions, often with coats of arms, are called the “first orders”.
For Portuguese speakers these works have long been an evocation of a seafaring heritage in which many take pride. Now Chinese collectors are beginning to acquire them as homage to the sophistication and commercial acumen of their forebears. For the moment, though, the best collection is still in Brazil. It is the focus of a new three-volume study of 600 outstanding pieces. Among the rarities acquired by this anonymous collector are 22 “first orders”, many more than can be found in any museum.
Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, director of the National Tile Museum in Lisbon and an expert on Chinese export wares, spent 11 years on this project. She tells the story of early exploration and the fascination with the exotic, detailing the crafty manoeuvring of foreign trade with China and the many influences that flowed back and forth across the water. Her books document the transition from tradition to Western motifs and shapes, among them coffee pots and sugar casters, and also delves into the sources for the armorial pieces for which this Brazilian collector has a special fondness. These books are expensive, but they are well worth the investment. This is the best work yet written on Chinese export porcelain and will be a resource for collectors, dealers and curators for years to come.
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The author Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos has been researching the RA Collection for 11 years and the result is a work of true scholarship providing the most up to date and complete account of the subject available. The three-volume set of hardcover books includes chapters on earthenware, stoneware and porcelain of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, works with Western shapes and decoration and armorial Chinese export porcelain. It gives details of many rare or unique pieces in the RA Collection, which are the only ones of their type yet recorded. Published in a limited edition of 900 numbered copies – 500 in English and 400 in Portuguese – signed by the author, this work is a must for museum curators, collectors and scholars.
http://www.racollection.net
For more information about the lectures and book lauches click here
By Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos. Jorge Welsh Books; 1,204 pages; £900
WHEN the Portuguese began trading with China in the early 1500s, porcelain was one of the luxury goods they carried home in their ships. Only the Chinese knew how to make this delicate, often translucent, material that rings when you tap it. Demand for porcelain made expressly for foreigners spread as far afield as the Netherlands, Germany, Persia, the Ottoman empire, Japan and the young United States.
The Chinese manufacturers drew on traditional shapes, but quickly began to branch out, making Western tureens in the form of pigs, cockerels, blue-eyed horned oxheads and bug-eyed crouching crabs, as well as sauceboats shaped as whole multicoloured fish. It was a world apart from the traditional Chinese blue-and-white. The earliest commissions, often with coats of arms, are called the “first orders”.
For Portuguese speakers these works have long been an evocation of a seafaring heritage in which many take pride. Now Chinese collectors are beginning to acquire them as homage to the sophistication and commercial acumen of their forebears. For the moment, though, the best collection is still in Brazil. It is the focus of a new three-volume study of 600 outstanding pieces. Among the rarities acquired by this anonymous collector are 22 “first orders”, many more than can be found in any museum.
Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, director of the National Tile Museum in Lisbon and an expert on Chinese export wares, spent 11 years on this project. She tells the story of early exploration and the fascination with the exotic, detailing the crafty manoeuvring of foreign trade with China and the many influences that flowed back and forth across the water. Her books document the transition from tradition to Western motifs and shapes, among them coffee pots and sugar casters, and also delves into the sources for the armorial pieces for which this Brazilian collector has a special fondness. These books are expensive, but they are well worth the investment. This is the best work yet written on Chinese export porcelain and will be a resource for collectors, dealers and curators for years to come.
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The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics:A Collector’s Vision
Cerâmica da China. Colecção RA
The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics: A Collector’s Vision is the most important new reference book on Chinese export porcelain to be published for many years. It provides the first comprehensive study of what is probably the world’s best private collection of pieces for the European market and contains new research into the subject of Chinese export porcelain.
The author Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos has been researching the RA Collection for 11 years and the result is a work of true scholarship providing the most up to date and complete account of the subject available. The three-volume set of hardcover books includes chapters on earthenware, stoneware and porcelain of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, works with Western shapes and decoration and armorial Chinese export porcelain. It gives details of many rare or unique pieces in the RA Collection, which are the only ones of their type yet recorded. Published in a limited edition of 900 numbered copies – 500 in English and 400 in Portuguese – signed by the author, this work is a must for museum curators, collectors and scholars.
http://www.racollection.net
For more information about the lectures and book lauches click here
Published by Jorge Welsh Books,
London and Lisbon, October, 2011
E-mail us to order - Language: English
- Hardcover
- ISBN 978-0-9557432-3-8
- 36,2 x 26,5 cm
- 1204 pages, 927 colour illustrations and 20 black & white illustrations
- £900 (+ shipping)
- Language: Portuguese
- Hardcover
- ISBN 978-0-9557432-4-5
- 36,2 x 26,5 cm
- 1204 pages, 927 colour illustrations and 20 black & white illustrations
- £900 (+ shipping)
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