Best Books on 'Chinese Export Porcelain' 

The Canton Famille Rose Porcelains, Chinese Export Porcelain in the 19th Century by John Quentin Feller

5 votes If you have read the book, give your grade!
Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 30, 2008
 in the Chinese Export Porcelain category
. 0 Comments

cantonfamillerose1.jpgChinese Export Porcelain in the 19th Century: The Canton Famille Rose Porcelains

This booklet is only 45 pages and in about letter format. I like to recommend it anyway since it is knowledgeable written and the pictures are of good quality. It is a fine book to be sure, full of helpful and interesting information. I think this could actually be quite useful in particular on the US market where this porcelain is more common than in Europe at a very modest price. For dating, David Howard Chinese Armorial Porcelain II cover this period too and is more all round, so if you got Howard II, you might not find that this booklet adds that much. But, there is also a difference in size, price, and scope.

As a small comment I personally prefer to reserve the famille rose name to porcelain from the 18th century and to call this porcelain Rose Medallion family, but maybe this does not matter much.

As a pure curiosity the author was also a very special guy. There was a lot of talk about this at the time. The author, John Quentin Feller, a University of Scranton professor and expert in Chinese porcelain was one of the most accomplished and compulsive art thieves in American history. Feller admitted walking off with more than 100 items from eight different museums. Interestingly, he donated many of his stolen goodies back to other cultural institutions, earning himself something of a reputation as an art world Robin Hood. He managed to carry on for almost 20 years before being caught and sent to prison in 1991.

Paperback: 45 pages
Publisher: Peabody Essex Museum (August 1982)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 087577069X
ISBN-13: 978-0875770697
Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces

The Ca Mau Shipwreck 1723-1735 by Dinh Chién

10 votes If you have read the book, give your grade!
Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 30, 2008
 in the Chinese Export Porcelain and Ship Wreck Cargoes category
. 1 Comment

ca_mau.jpg
This is a very interesting book considering the time this ship appears to have sunk. Quite a lot of the cargo consists of pieces that in the antiques trade usually has been given the label Kangxi. Since quite a number of the pieces actually carries the Yongzheng (1723-1735) reign mark, that theory obviously needs to go. This is a really good reference book for this expansive perion in the history of Chinese Export porcelain findin ite palace right between the Vung Tau (c. 1700) and the Gotheborg (1745).

The book is of 258 pages (96 pages of text, 386 photographs, and 21 pages of ceramics designs) and many line drawings. The book was based on the report complied by the Excavations Committee together with data and records relating to the artifacts collected by the two provincial museums of Binh Thuan and Ca Mau, from 1998-2000.

The contents includes the archaeological excavations of Ca Mau shipwreck, the artifacts recovered from the shipwreck site and maps.

Author: Dinh Chién, Nguyén,
Museum of Vietnamese History and Ca Mau Provincial Museum (2003),
Language: Vietnamese and English,

China to Order: Focusing on the XIXth Century and Surveying Polychrome Export Porcelain Produced During the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1908 by Daniel Nadler

4 votes If you have read the book, give your grade!
Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 29, 2008
 in the Chinese Export Porcelain category
. 2 Comments

china_to_order.jpgChina to Order: Focusing on the XIXth Century and Surveying Polychrome Export Porcelain Produced During the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1908

This book focuses despite the impression one might get from the cover picture, on the 19th century export porcelains. I need to say I have not read this book myself but list it through recommendations. You are welcome to add your comments and star ranks to the entry.

JE


Porcelain from the Vung Tau Wreck: The Hallström Excavation by Christiaan J. A. Jörg, & Michael Flecker

10 votes If you have read the book, give your grade!
Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 27, 2008
 in the Chinese Export Porcelain, Maritime Archaeology and Ship Wreck Cargoes category
. 0 Comments


vungtau.jpg
Porcelain from the Vung Tau Wreck: The Hallstrom Excavation

In the 1690s, a Chinese junk bound for Batavia and laden with ceramics for export to Europe, caught fire and foundered off Vung Tau, Vietnam. In the 1990s – and with the sanction of the Vietnamese government — a Vietnamese/Swedish team explored the wreck. A vast amount of mainly blue-and-white porcelain was found, and much of it was finally auctioned in Amsterdam, the cargo’s original destination. This illustrated expert study describes the 17th century export trade of China-Batavia-Holland and details the artefacts found. In part 2 the ship itself is presented and the methods and course of the excavation are set out. With drawings and photographs, biblography and index.

This book is divided into two sections: the art historical study of the ceramic hoard and it place in the history of European trade with Asia and China and the excavation process. It also presents data and commentary on the systematic underwater fieldwork, documentation and the raising of the cargo.

Format: Hardcover, 172 pages
Published: 2001, Singapore
ISBN: 981045208X

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 Export Porcelain, Standard Patterns and Forms 1780-1880 by Herbert, Peter and Nancy Schiffer

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

schiffer.jpgChinese Export Porcelain, Standard Patterns and Forms, 1780-1880: Standard Patterns and Forms

I list this book a bit reluctantly because there are a high risk that anyone looking at the cover only will be disappointed, since this deals mostly only with Rose Medallion. The typography is homemade with a typewriter it seems and the mostly black and white illustrations are mediocre. Still due to its sheer mass of illustrated pieces I still think this belongs among one of the better books to have there in the bookshelf, if your main interest in Rose Medallion for the North American market. Despite a few silly mistakes I think it sorts out the North American terminology on Chinese export porcelain pretty well and you get all of the traditional definitions down pat. Someone needs to keep up the traditions and I think this book does that pretty well. If you want better illustrations, there are plenty books with good pictures around. In that respect, this book hits pretty near rock bottom I would say. Maybe you should try to take a look inside it before you decide, but since I think it is available dirt cheap second had it’s not that big a decision.

Chinese Export Porcelain in North America by Jean McClure Mudge

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Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 26, 2008
 in the Chinese Export Porcelain category
. 0 Comments

mudge.jpgChinese Export Porcelain in North America

Provides a historical survey of the history of collecting Chinese porcelain in North America, from the late-16th to the early-20th century. One chapter deals with the United States where the China trade began in late-18th century.

I think I would call this an introductory book on Chinese export porcelain. The perspective is the North American and I think if that is where you are, maybe this is the book to begin with. It is not a “master piece”, maybe it tries to cover too much, but I still think it is a good beginners book which covers most bases and illustrates some of the more serious collectors items that belongs to the North American history and tradition. If you just want one book on this topic, this could be a good choice.

New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986.

China for the West by David Howard and John Ayers

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Published
by
Jan-Erik Nilsson
 on March 26, 2008
 in the Chinese Export Porcelain category
. 0 Comments

chinaforthewest.jpgChina for the West: Chinese Porcelain and Other Decorative Arts for Export Illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection

When I met Mildred Mottahedeh in New York in 1978 this book set was just off the presses, so I could talk her out of a signed copy for myself. She and her husband had single-handedly pushed up the auction prices on export porcelain to never before seen heights and this was the result. Their collection, catalogued and described by two of the most knowledgeable scholars in the field.

There were at the time nothing like it on the market and I would say as an individual book, even if it happens to be a set of two, it has not yet been rivaled. In its dry manner it is very British. I can recognize David Howards very knowledgeable but light-hearted academic prose. This is a set of two books and the definitive must have if you are interested in Chinese export. This is a must. A very large proportion of all “classical” export patterns from the 18th century are illustrated and described. There are certainly more pieces and decorations around of importance that are not here, but this book is a must and very practically so too.

CLASSIC – on Chinese export porcelain in general

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