Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 8
Book Description
Chinese Porcelain, French Decorative
Author: Shapely Bodies
Author: Christine A. JonesPublisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1644530740
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
Shapely Bodies: The Image of Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century France constructs the first cultural history of porcelain making in France. It takes its title from two types of “bodies” treated in this study: the craft of porcelain making shaped clods of earth into a clay body to produce high-end commodities and the French elite shaped human bodies into social subjects with the help of makeup, stylish patterns, and accessories. These practices crossed paths in the work of artisans, whose luxury objects reflected and also influenced the curves of fashion in the eighteenth century. French artisans began trials to reproduce fine Chinese porcelain in the 1660s. The challenge proved impossible until they found an essential ingredient, kaolin, in French soil in the 1760s. Shapely Bodies differs from other studies of French porcelain in that it does not begin in the 1760s at the Sèvres manufactory when it became technically possible to produce fine porcelain in France, but instead ends there. Without the secret of Chinese porcelain, artisans in France turned to radical forms of experimentation. Over the first half of the eighteenth century, they invented artificial alternatives to Chinese porcelain, decorated them with French style, and, with equal determination, shaped an identity for their new trade that distanced it from traditional guild-crafts and aligned it with scientific invention. The back story of porcelain making before kaolin provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of artisanal innovation and cultural mythmaking. To write artificial porcelain into a history of “real” porcelain dominated by China, Japan, and Meissen in Saxony, French porcelainiers learned to describe their new commodity in language that tapped into national pride and the mythic power of French savoir faire. Artificial porcelain cut such a fashionable image that by the mid-eighteenth century, Louis XV appropriated it for the glory of the crown. When the monarchy ended, revolutionaries reclaimed French porcelain, the fruit of a century of artisanal labor, for the Republic. Tracking how the porcelain arts were depicted in documents and visual arts during one hundred years of experimentation, Shapely Bodies reveals the politics behind the making of French porcelain’s image. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Nankin and Enamelled Chinese Porcelain ; Cloisonné Enamels, Bronzes ; French Decorative Objects and Furniture
Author: Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum
Author: F. J. B. WatsonPublisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 0892360348
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
Ever since the Middle Ages it was the practice in Europe to mount exotic objects such as oriental porcelain in settings of precious or semiprecious metal as tribute to their rarity and value. In the seventeenth century, when Chinese and Japanese porcelains began to reach the West in considerable quantities, the practice continued, especially in France. With the opening of the eighteenth century, it became increasingly fashionable in Parisian society to decorate the interiors of houses with Far Eastern materials such as lacquer and mounted porcelain. This taste was catered to by the marchands-merciers, members of a guild who combined the functions of the modern interior decorator, the antique dealer, and the picture dealer. These men devised highly ingenious settings for Far Eastern porcelains to adapt their exotic character to the French interiors of the period. At first these were of silver (occasionally even gold); later, during the Rococo period when gilding was very lavishly used for the decoration of walls, furniture, light fittings, etc., gilt bronze was the material generally adopted. The marchands-merciers not only designed such mounts and employed some of the most skillful craftsmen of the day to execute them but also marketed them. The survival of the account book of one of their number, Lazare Duvaux, whose shop Au Chagrin de Turquie in the rue Saint Honoré was patronized by the most fashionable sections of Parisian society, has provided us with an immense amount of information about mounted oriental porcelain, its makers, its cost, who collected it, and so on. This information has been drawn on in cataloguing the Getty Museum’s collection of mounted oriental porcelain, which is unusually large and of exceptionally high quality.
French Furniture
Author: Catalogue of a Small Collection of Nankin and Enamelled Chinese Porcelain, Cloisonné Enamels, Bronzes, French Decorative Objects and Furniture, the Property of a Gentleman and a Collection of Porcelain, Objects of Art
Author: A. P. AlsoppChinese porcelain
Author: William BurtonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Porcelain
Languages : en
Pages : 404
Book Description
Among all the subjects of human ingenuity and invention few have aroused such widespread interest or have been so much investigated during the past two centuries as the origins of the beautiful material called Porcelain, known in the common speech of so many Western countries as "China Ware," a phrase which emphatically distinguishes the country whose productions in this kind have long been famous all the world over. -- Introduction.
Fine Old French Furniture and Decorative Objects, and Old Chinese Porcelain
Author: Old Chinese-porcelain ; Earl English Enamels and Old French Furniture, Decorative Objects
Author: European Porcelain in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Author: Jeffrey MungerPublisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588396436
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
Porcelain imported from China was the most highly coveted new medium in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Europe. Its pure white color, translucency, and durability, as well as the delicacy of decoration, were impossible to achieve in European earthenware and stoneware. In response, European ceramic factories set out to discover the process of producing porcelain in the Chinese manner, with significant artistic, technical, and commercial ramifications for Britain and the Continent. Indeed, not only artisans, but kings, noble patrons, and entrepreneurs all joined in the quest, hoping to gain both prestige and profit from the enterprises they established. This beautifully illustrated volume showcases ninety works that span the late sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century and reflect the major currents of European porcelain production. Each work is illustrated with glorious new photography, accompanied by analysis and interpretation by one of the leading experts in European decorative arts. Among the wide range of porcelains selected are rare blue-and-white wares and figures from Italy, superb examples from the Meissen factory in Germany and the Sèvres factory in France, and ceramics produced by leading British eighteenth-century artisans. Taken together, they reveal why the Metropolitan Museum’s holdings in this field are among the finest in the world. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana}