Pamela B. Vandiver – författare

The MRS Symposium Proceeding series is an internationally recognised reference suitable for researchers and practitioners. This book was first published in 1993.

Ceramic Masterpieces: Art, Structure andTechnology was first published by the Free Press in 1986. It won a publisher's award for art (American Publishers' Association, Scholarly and Technical, Honorable Mention, 1986). The copyright is held by David Kingery's son, William D. Kingery, Jr., who about 11 years ago signed over to the American Ceramic Society the rights to publish a second edition of the book. This second edition is divided into four parts. In the introductory section, it states: "The appearance of a ceramic is determined by its internal structure, which is in turn determined by the technology of its manufacture. Revolutionary new methods of study and analysis have advanced out understanding of ceramics. This book applies these new methods, connecting visual impact, internal structure, and technology for a deeper appreciation of ceramic masterpieces." Each chapter outlines the transformative art and structure of a ceramic material by providing a general outline of history, artistic value, antecedent technologies, manufacture of the particular dated example, analysis of macrostructure, then microstructure, then composition, then firing, variability and its relation to appearance, and finally significance of technology and its contribution to art and culture. In the ceramic technology section, the sequences and variability of processing, exemplified in the case studies, is inventoried with emphasis on structure and transformation.

This book gives evidence of the proliferation of successful multidisciplinary collaborations among researchers in museums, universities and laboratories. These studies use the methods and techniques of materials research to understand degradation and design strategies and promote long-term preservation of material culture and cultural heritage, e.g., works of art, culturally significant artifacts, and archaeological sites and complexes and their environments. Preserving cultural heritage includes developing a critical understanding of how our predecessors used technology and craft to solve problems of survival and organization and make the symbols or representations of what was important to them. The book also discloses patterns of technology-transfer from one field to another and provides evaluation tools and skills so that preservation expectations may be based on performance criteria and life histories of the constituent materials. Topics include: technical art history; conservation science; archaeology science; reconstruction of past technologies; innovative methodology and instrumentation and interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary contributions.