Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces

by Patricia F. Ferguson (Author)

Winner of the 2017 American Ceramics Circle Book of the Year Award

The purpose of this publication is to introduce the rich and diverse ceramics in the National Trust’s enormous and encyclopedic collection, which contains around 75,000 objects and is kept in 250 historic houses in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. One hundred essential pieces have been chosen from this vast collection, each adding to our understanding of ceramic patronage and history by showing personal stories of ownership, exhibition, taste, and consumption.

The following Continental wares are included in the collection: “Red-figure” goods, Italian armorial tablewares, and Dutch Delft from the Greek Islands. Chinese Kraak ware, Dehua ware, Japanese Kakiemon-style and Imari-style tablewares and garnitures, Johann Joachim Kändler table sculpture and tablewares attributed to Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck, Castelli fayence from the Grue workshop, and wares from the following porcelain manufactories: Doccia, Vienna, Vincennes, Sèvres, Dihl, and Feulliet

Delftware, salt-glazed stoneware, creamware, Wedgwood Black Basalt and Etruscan ware, Chelsea, Bow, Worcester, Derby porcelain, Minton China, De Morgan, and Martin ware are all examples of English pottery and porcelain.

Many are being published for the first time, including original interior illustrations. The collection examines trends of ceramic collecting by British aristocracy and gentry over 400 years.

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