GGM161 Gugong Museum: MINGDAI CHENGHUA YUYAO CIQI: JINGDEZHEN YUYAO YIZHI CHUTU YU GUGONG BOWUYUAN CANG CHUANSHI CIQI DUIBI. Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty: A Comparison of Porcelains from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum. 明代成化御窯瓷器 : 景德鎮御窯遺址出土與故宮博物院藏傳世瓷器對比. Beijing, 2015. 725 pp. Full page colour plates throughout. Colour text plates. 2 vols. 29x29 cm. Boards. GBP 250.00 Large and weighty two-volume catalogue produced to accompany an important exhibition at the Gugong Museum in Beijing showing the sought-after and coveted ceramics of the Chenghua reign of the Ming dynasty. The ceramics of the Chenghua reign are regarded as the pinnacle of ceramic production in the Ming dynasty and were (and are) much desired by emperors and collectors. The exhibition showed a total of 183 exhibits and included both excavated and reconstructed ceramics from the Jingdezhen imperial kiln sites (116 exhibits), juxtaposed (for purposes of comparison) with similar superb perfect examples (many related in design and decoration to the Jingdezhen pieces) in the collection of the Gugong Museum in Beijing and thus the former Chinese imperial collection (67 exhibits). Also included are later imitations, the majority from the Qing dynasty Kangxi and Yongzheng reigns. This two-volume catalogue shows a total of 310 wonderful ceramics and also includes (for reference purposes and comparison) illustration and description of examples other than those exhibited. The exhibition was in five main sections: 1. Freshness and Elegance: Blue-and-White Porcelain and Underglaze Red Porcelain; 2. Lightness and Beauty: Polychrome Porcelain and Doucai Porcelain; 3. Colourful Porcelain: Multicoloured Glaze Porcelain and Plain Tricolour Porcelain; 4. Uniformity and Pureness: Single-Coloured Glaze Porcelain; 5. A Profound Influence: Chenghua Imperial Porcelain Imitated in Later Ages. All examples illustrated in full page colour and in multiple views, including bases and basemarks. Prefaces, lists of contents, lists of plates, brief abstracts to essays and captions to plates in English. Main text in Chinese. An excellent visual and research reference. This is the second exhibition in a series of presentations of porcelains of the Ming dynasty, being an ongoing collaboration between the Jingdezhen Ceramics Research Institute and the Gugong Museum in Beijing. This catalogue sold extremely fast in China due to the obsession there with Chenghua porcelain and was never generally available. Now out-of-print. Subjects: Ceramics Archaeology Item 94 in Special List C32. URL for this record: hanshan.com/?g/GGM161.HTM Record produced by Hanshan Tang Books, www.hanshan.com. |