China for the West: Chinese Porcelain & other Decorative Arts for Export illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection (TWO VOLUMES) Hardcover - 1978

Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers Limited, London, 1978 Book. Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. English text; Hardcover (two hardcover volumes in buckram bound with dust jackets in splicase); 25.6 x 35 cm; 5.243 Kg; 704 pages with 103 colour plates and 100 monochrome illustrations; Used books wih signs of wear, namely on the dust jacket that show minor tears. Interior in very good condition.; This century has brought a growing awareness of the vast scale of Chinese export of decorative arts from the seventeenth century onwards. Until very recently however this subject had been very little studied, overshadowed as it was by the ever-widening perspectives of China's ancient past. It was nevertheless through this trade, and especially its ceramic wares, that the unique artistic creativity of the Chinese first became widely known and appreciated. This book aims to provide the most detailed and penetrating analysis yet made of the porcelains produced for Western markets during these centuries examining in its seven hundred pages and as many illustrations (one hundred of them in colour) all their many-sided attractions. The often unusual forms of the porcelain, their decorative styles and traditions, the endlessly varying subjects that they portray - and above all the continuous interchange in such themes between the Chinese manufacturers and decorators and their distant clients in the West, by means of the historic trading companies - all these are studied and interpreted more fully, and tabulated more practically for reference than ever before. The work also examines other export goods - painted enamels, carvings in ivory or soapstone, and reverse paintings on glass, to name only a few - which are represented by notable pieces. The material illustrated here is from one of the greatest collections of expert porcelain: assembled with care over nearly fifty years, it contains much that is rare or unique. Mr. and Ms. Motteheded have collected with clear-sighted purpose from the start, in a way no museum can hope to do so, so that today the wealth of rarities in their collection is matched only by its comprehensiveness, providing an ideal foundation for such a study. The authors are well equipped to write a major work on this subject, John Ayers, Keeper of the Far Eastern Section at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is a noted authority on Chinese and Japanese ceramics whose numerous writings include four volumes on the Baur Collection (Geneva, 1968-74). David Howard's book Chinese Armorial Porcelain (London, 1974) has given an entirely new emphasis in the study of export porcelain, its design and dating, as well as the social history behind the great East India Companies. With its superb illustrations and analytical, yet highly readable text, this book offers an indispensable new source of information for the student and the collector..