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Chinese Blue and White Porcelain

Macintosh, Duncan

Blue and White porcelain has been in the mainstream of Chinese ceramic production since the beginning of the fifteenth century, but, nevertheless, has at times had a somewhat chequered history. 

When it first appeared in the fourteenth century Chinese connoisseurs ahd regarded it as vulgar and garish, and a hundred years later, after receiving immense Imperial patronage during the Xuande reign, was the victim of an austere puritanical reaction. Since the Chenghua reign later in the fifteenth century, however, "blue and white" has gone from strengh, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had an immense effect on porcelain production in the West. In this new history, the author traces the history of "blue and white" from its uncertain beginnings to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Considerable attention is also paid throughout to social and political events so that the reader can see something of the purely "human" conditions that were contemporary with the production of the porcelain. "This book will be of value not only to the expert, but also to the beginner who will find, in a handy form, much of value when evaluating the authenticity, provenance and dating of Chinese 'blue and white'." - from the Oriental Art review of the First Edition.

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