Dragons, Tigers and Bamboo: Japanese Porcelain and its Impact in Europe - The Macdonald Collection

Douglas & McIntyre, D&M Piblishers Inc., Canada, 2009 Book. Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. English text; Hardcover (with dust jacket); 24 x 29.4 cm; 1.345 Kg; 200 pages with 160 colour illustrations.; Used book in very good condition overall. Interior as new. The dust jacket exterior shows signs of wear, namely some minor scuffs and edgewear. The dust jacket is now protected with a clearcover..; Since the early seventeenth century when the secret of porcelain was first carried from China to Japan by Korean potters, Japan has produced some of the world's most exquisite porcelains. The Kakiemon masters in Arita on the island of Kyushu gained particular renown for the quality of their colourful overglaze enamels and artistic designs. Through exports Kakiemon ware had a profound impact on the development of European porcelain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, inspiring ceramic manufacturers in both continental Europe and England to reach new levels of technical and artistic achievement. This book highlights 170 masterpieces from the Bill and Molly Anne Macdonald Collection at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto, Canada. This extraordinary collection illustrates many different aspects of the historical interaction between Japanese and European porcelain during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is unquestionably the best cross-cultural porcelain collection in Canada and is among the best of its kind in the world. In Part I, Chief Curator Charles Mason contributes a concise and highly informative history of porcelain in Japan from 1600 to 1750; Oliver Impey, formerly curator of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, focuses on Kakiemon porcelain, and Christiaan J.A. Jorg, Professor of Art History at the University of Leiden, traces the influence of Japanese export porcelain on European porcelain. In Part II, Charles Mason provides enlightening commentaries on selected pieces from the Macdonald Collection, including various Japanese styles as well as Delfware from the Netherlands. Meissen and Frankenthaler porcelains from Germany; Chantilly, Saint-Cloud, Villeroy and Samsom porcelains from France, and Chelsea, Bow, Worcester and other wares from England.; This publication for the first time makes the Macdonald collection accessible to an international audience..