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 andTechnologywas first published by the Free Press in 1986. It won a publisher?s award for art (AmericanPublishers? Association, Scholarly and Technical, HonorableMention, 1986).  The copyright is held by DavidKingery?s son, William D. Kingery, Jr., who about 11 yearsago signed over to the American Ceramic Society the rights topublish a second edition of the book. This second edition isdivided into four parts. In the introductory section, it states :?The appearance of a ceramic is determined by its internalstructure, which is in turn determined by the technology of itsmanufacture.  Revolutionary new methods of study and analysishave advanced out understanding of ceramics.  This bookapplies these new methods, connecting visual impact, internalstructure, and technology for a deeper appreciation of ceramicmasterpieces.? Each chapter outlines the transformative artand structure of a ceramic material by providing a general outlineof history, artistic value, antecedent technologies, manufacture ofthe particular dated example, analysis of macrostructure, thenmicrostructure, then composition, then firing, variability and itsrelation to appearance, and finally significance of technology andits contribution to art and culture. In the ceramic technologysection, the sequences and variability of processing, exemplifiedin the case studies, is inventoried with emphasis on structure andtransformation.

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.