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L’Art de la Porcelaine en Europe

Beaux Objects D'Autrefois

Jan Diviš / Marielle Ernould-Gandouet

Since ancient times that men have made ceramics. Several 'images' of lost civilisations have reached our time through recovered ceramic wares in good condition or in the form of fragments.

From time to time, ceramics has become one of the most refined forms of applied arts. Resulting from research and the triumph of craftsmanship, porcelain emerges as the peak of ceramics. It was in China that everything began and still today, one can only admire and handle, with much precaution and love, those admirable pieces of Chinese porcelain. Europeans shared this wonder many centuries before us. The history of the discovery of the secret of making porcelain appears to be a wonderful adventure, a quest for the beauty of its shapes and colours, with failures and at some points tainted by sordid financial considerations, but culminating in an artistic apotheosis in which Europe took part. In this rigorous and scientific book, one will experience the extraordinary adventure of the art of porcelain in Europe, mainly from the early 17th century to the early 20th century. This adventure that may be read like a romantic novel, yet is guided by accurate historical facts. Known as the golden century of porcelain, the 18th century is largely evoked in this book, which is as much a book as it is an encyclopedia of the art of porcelain in Europe for amateurs. 146 illustrations - of which 64 are in colour and 82 in black and white - chosen in an exemplary way, offer the reader an ideal overview of this art made of subtleties and more than precious due to its fragility.

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