Regina Krahl – författare

Sir Percival David made one of the finest collections of Chinese ceramics outside Asia. It includes many items of imperial quality, with beautiful examples of extremely rare Ru and guan wares as well as the famous David vases. Their inscriptions date to 1351, making them an internationally acknowledged yardstick for the dating of Chinese blue and white porcelain. Here are 50 selected highlights, all illustrated with colour photographs taken especially for this publication. The accompanying text provides details and draws out the important features of each piece. The range and scope of the collection provide the material for a stunning overview and accessible introduction to Chinese ceramic art.

This Shang Shan Tang collection is one of the rare assemblages of Chinese ceramics specialising in Yaozhou wares. With over a hundred examples, it is very likely the largest repository of its kind; covering an extremely wide range of Yaozhou artefacts of outstanding quality, including both classic types and highly rare specimens, it is uniquely suited to illustrate the kilns’ history. This catalogue covers extremely rare black and white and celadon-green wares samples of Tongchuan kilns made Yaozhou wares from the Tang dynasty and Five Dynasties. This catalogue also includes a magnificent and wide range of Song's pieces such as the most iconic dishes and bowls with carved nature motifs and combed details, which feature peony and other flower patterns, ducks, fish and conch shells among lotus or waves; and with similar molded designs of flowers, boys among flowers, or fish among waves. This catalogue is one of the most important reference books for Yaozhou wares and is a must for collectors and connoisseurs of Yaozhou wares to own it.Text in English and Chinese.

The Mingzhitang Collection of Sir Joseph Hotung is one of the finest collections in the world to capture the essence of early Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. With 20 outstanding examples, it concentrates on the first hundred years of China’s blue-and-white production, in the late Yuan (1271–1368) and early Ming (1368–1644) dynasties — a period that was never surpassed in artistic ingenuity and material quality.The charisma and the energy of the masterly paintings on porcelain created in the Yuan dynasty at the kilns of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, which made this genre so influential and universally admired, are represented with 12 exceptional examples, most of them unique. They demonstrate the powerful blue-and-white style developed under Mongol rule, when the artisans appear to have been working with few restraints.The collection equally documents the much more refined and sophisticated early Ming style of the Yongle (1403–24) and Xuande (1426–35) reigns, when production was closely controlled by an imperial court with exceptionally high standards. Here, the collection illustrates two stylistic strands that existed side by side: porcelains decorated completely in Chinese taste and vessels in the shapes and patterns of Islamic metalwork from countries in close diplomatic contact with the Chinese court. The wares of this period defined imperial porcelain styles until the end of China’s last dynasty.The book is lavishly illustrated and contains a general introduction on early Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, an extensive description, documentation and discussion of each piece, and a bibliography.