Author: SCOTT, ROSEMARY E.
Title: For the Imperial Court: Qing Porcelain from the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art
Description: The American Federation of Arts, New York and Sun Tree Publishing, Singapore/London. 1997, 1st Edition. (ISBN: 1885444044). Soft cover. Book, English text.; Paperback; 23 x 25.5 cm; 0.8 Kg.; 160 pages with colour illustrations.; Used with signs of wear on the exterior, namely a few scratches on the front cover. Edge wear. The bottom right side of the front cover is slightly bent. Interior as new.; This catalogue has been published in conjunction with Imperial Court: Qing Porcelain from the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, an exhibition organized by the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art and The American Federation of Arts. Exhibition Itinerary: Kimbell Art Museum Fort Worth, Texas, December 7, 1997-March 1, 1998; The Society of the Four Arts Palm Beach, Florida, March 20-April 19, 1998; The Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania May 3-July 24, 1998.; "The Qing-dynasty porcelains most familiar in the West are those made for the export trade to Europe and America. The Percival David Foundation is unusual in having a collection that contains very few of these exported porcelains. Instead, Sir Percival David sought to acquire the rare and beautiful items that would have been made for and appreciated by the Chinese imperial court. Sir Percival David (1892-1964) was a scholar of considerable note and unusual among Western scholars of his day in that he learned to read the Chinese language and visited China in order to gain a better understanding of Chinese connoisseurship. It was the study of Chinese texts and discussions with Chinese scholars and collectors that led him to base his collection upon the tastes of the Chinese imperial court of the eighteenth century. For this reason there are relatively few items in the collection that postdate the eighteenth century and consequently few in the current exhibition. When Sir Percival did purchase items made after the eighteenth century, they fell into one of three categories: they specifically related to other items in the collection; they had a particular connection with the imperial family; or they bore interesting inscriptions. Epigraphy was one of Sir Percival's main areas of research. Sir Percival's collection is particularly rich in examples of the rare imperial porcelains decorated with delicate overglaze enamel designs accompanied by poetic inscriptions of the type traditionally called guyue xuan. The only other collection to match and exceed the Foundation's holdings of these exquisite enameled porcelains is that of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Although Sir Percival's acquisition of blue and white porcelain from the Qing period was not as extensive as from the Ming (1368-1644), he obtained especially fine archaistic pieces and those displaying the new decorative styles of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1952, the year the David Foundation opened to the public, the collection received a magnificent gift of Qing monochrome porcelains from one of Sir Percival's friends, the Honorable Mountstuart Elphinstone. Prominent among these were fine examples of the innovatory monochrome colors that gained popularity at the Chinese court in the eighteenth century." excerpt from Rosemary E. Scott text. Very Good/No Jacket.

Keywords: 1885444044 porcelain,ceramics,china,ming dynasty,qing dynasty,exhibition,percival david foundation of chinese art Chinese Ceramics Chinese Art


See more books from our catalog: Collections and Exhibitions