Best Books on 'Armorial Porcelain' 

Chinese Armorial Porcelain Volume II by David Sanctuary Howard

8 votes If you have read the book, give your grade!
Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 26, 2008
 in the Armorial Porcelain and Chinese Export Porcelain category
. 0 Comments

howard2.jpgChinese Armorial Porcelain. Volume II

This Volume II is a second, much updated, version of a work originally published in 1974. The late David Howard was as dedicated and well-organized businessman and scholar you could ever ask for. Somehow he seemed to share the soul of the early traders, adventurers and businessmen who originated the East India Companies throughout the world in the 17th 18th and 19th centuries. David Howard was an expert in Chinese export porcelain for over thirty years, based in a small shop in Hay Hill in London. We met and corresponded via mail for some time and I am happy to recognize some of my additions to his collection in his books.

This Volume II I would consider an indispensable resource for anyone studying and collecting Chinese Export porcelain.

Beside an extensive list of supplementary articles and registers the listing of services with photographs occupies some 640 pages of the 900 pages.

The original 1974 volume listed nearly 3,000 services made for families with British connections, of which almost 2,000 were illustrated. This new 2003 edition illustrates some 3,380 services, and David Howard believes that perhaps as many as 2,000 more still await discovery.

The order in which this complex material is organized follows the method he introduced in the 1974 edition by dividing them according to the style of the designs on their rims.

Although the system is not perfect, containing minor contradictions and overlaps, it supplements dating most domestic and export Chinese porcelain that bears similar designs as the armorial porcelain why these documented items, sometimes datable to an exact year, provide information with regards to form, pattern, motif and color palette that can be applied both to export wares and to Qing dynasty porcelain more generally.

For supplementary and updating material there is a useful website to complement the book www.chinese-armorial-porcelain.co.uk.

Hardcover: 900 pages
Publisher: Heirloom & Howard Ltd.; 1st edition (2003)
Language: English
ASIN: B000P72736

CLASSIC – on export porcelain in general and specifically, on Armorial porcelain for Great Britain

Chinese Armorial Porcelain Volume I by David Sanctuary Howard

6 votes If you have read the book, give your grade!
Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 26, 2008
 in the Armorial Porcelain and Chinese Export Porcelain category
. 0 Comments

howard.jpg

This is the first volume of the well known standard works on Chinese Armorial porcelain for the British market, between 1695 and 1820. Besides this, an excellent tool for anybody who want to be able to date 18th century Chinese export porcelain in general. It give a good background to how the porcelain that was made specifically on order was made decorated sold and, bought. This book is a masterpiece and an indispencible book for any in the antiques business as well as most any collector of Chinese Export Porcelain. The ilustrations that are mostly in black and white feels today a bit out dated but are ok for identifying purposes.

CLASSIC – on export porcelain in general and specifically, on Armorial porcelain for Great Britain