La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes: A Décor Occidental by Hervouet, Francois, Nicole Hervouet, and Yves Bruneau - 1986

Flammarion, Paris, 1986 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. French text; Hardcover (with dust jacket); 25 x 33.9 cm; 2.76 Kg; 432 pages with 1206 illustrations, 100 in colour.; Minor signs of wear on the front cover, spine and back cover of the dust jacket.; This reference book almost functions as an encyclopaedia, identifying and providing possible dates to a very large range of western scenes painted on Chinese porcelain, commissioned through the East India Companies and that arrived in Europe, and later in the United States, during the 18th century. The idea of asking craftsmen of the Middle Kingdom to paint porcelain according to their own taste emerged very early in the minds of those Europeans who travelled to the Far East. For example, to paint a boat on which they had been sailing for six months on a bowl, or to reproduce an engraving, the portrait of a loved one, among others. In short, Westerners asked for anything that, for one reason or another (and the diversity of orders is… Read More