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Our Next Update :

OCTOBER 2023

EARLY CHINESE CERAMICS – From Private Collections.

Dear Customer,

We were going to update the website in September, however, this is going to be posponsed for a short time. The website will be in the first half of October, and of course you will receive an email when it is online. I have been busy, a project I was working on for the British government took longer than I first thought, that is now completed. I’ve also been preparing a talk for this coming Saturday. I have chosen a rather complicated subject, which is interesting to me and will hopefully be interesting to others.

Do look below to see the excellent new publication by Dr. Christiaan Jörg. As with all his books, the research is excellent. The photographs are of very high quality and it is a wonderful collection of porcelain. You can purchase it from the link below.

Regards,

Robert McPherson

ASIAN ART SOCIETY IN THE NETHERLANDS
Specimen Meeting with Anne Sey and Robert McPherson
Saturday September 30th.

https://www.kvvak.nl/en/agenda/2023/specimen-meeting-with-anne-sey-en-robert-mcpherson/

After last year’s successful edition, the ceramics committee is organising another specimen meeting. It will take place on Saturday afternoon 30 September from 2pm to 4pm at the Amsterdam Public Library.

Anne Sey will give a lecture on Japanese wabisabi ceramics and Robert McPherson will give a talk (in English) titled: ‘Ways of Seeing ; Chinese and Japanese Ceramics through Time, Taste and Culture’.

After the lectures, you will have the opportunity to tell something about a piece of ceramics from your collection or present an object for discussion or determination to those present. From 4pm to 5pm, there will be time to have a drink together.

Ohira Shingo, Large Vase, 2020

Location:

OBA, Oosterdokskade 143, Amsterdam, Prinsenzaal 6.6 (sixth floor)
This venue is wheelchair-accessible and there is disabled parking.
The venue is easily accessible by public transport.
Parking is available in the nearby garage: parking centrum Oosterdok

Admission for members and one guest is free.

ASIAN ART SOCIETY IN THE NETHERLANDS

The Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands was founded on 29 June 1918 by engineer and art connoisseur H.F.E. Visser (1890-1965) and collector and antiquarian G.J. Verburgt. Their goal was to disclose high-quality Asian art to a wider audience, to create interest in it and to stimulate academic research in the field of Asian art. As of January 1st 2022 the Dutch Tax Council designated the Royal Asian Art Society as a Cultural Public Benefit Organisation (‘Culturele Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling’ (ANBI)).

Publication of the catalogue raisonné of Chinese porcelain in the Frits Lugt Collection. By Christiaan Jörg.

When Frits Lugt (1884-1970) and his wife Jacoba Klever (1888-1969) decided to present their collections in the Hôtel Turgot in Paris, Chinese porcelain ranked among their priorities. They intended to give the French public an impression of Dutch Golden Age interiors and a porcelain cabinet had traditionally been part of Dutch material culture.Frits Lugt started assembling his Chinese porcelain collection when he lived in the Netherlands. After the Second World War, the couple settled in Paris, and Lugt continued his acquisitions from dealers or at auctions, in France and England.

Dish, Jingdezhen Kangxi, dated 1672

Porcelain. – 27,4cm (diam. of the rim)
Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 6658

He bought a variety of pieces, either made for export or for domestic Chinese use. The result, permanently exhibited in the Fondation Custodia, is a small but exquisite collection of high-quality Chinese porcelain, ranging mainly from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries. It reflects the Dutch preference for Kraak, Transitional and Kangxi porcelain, but a few unusual or even unique non-export porcelains are also on display. Almost all of these pieces are decorated in underglaze cobalt blue. Three Japanese works are included to complete the collection.

The directors of the Fondation Custodia who succeeded Frits Lugt have added a number of porcelains to the collection. Ger Luijten acquired some items that he deemed missing, for example a complete garniture and a large Kangxi jar, plus an astonishing piece of Chine de commande: a trompe-l’œil plaque which imitates with extraordinary fidelity a framed Dutch print or drawing.

It was also Ger Luijten who set up the project for a catalogue raisonné of the Fondation Custodia’s collection of Chinese porcelain. This was to replace the small publication of 1981, illustrated mainly in black and white and written by Daan Lunsingh Scheurleer. This update was both necessary and possible thanks to the important scientific progress made in recent decades.

Cabinet for porcelain, Dining room of Hôtel Turgot, Paris

Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris.

In this new catalogue, written by Christiaan J.A. Jörg, Dutch specialist on Chinese and Japanese porcelain, each of the 125 pieces is described in detail and placed in a scholarly context. Special attention is paid to iconography, inscriptions, and marks. A longer, informative essay elaborates on the history of the collection and shorter essays introduce each of the six sections into which the catalogue is chronologically divided. Every object has been photographed and reproduced from multiple angles, including the base that often reveals a lot of information about their manufacture.

Catalogue

Christiaan J.A. Jörg
Chinese and Japanese Porcelain in the Frits Lugt Collection
Paris, Fondation Custodia, 2023
272 pages, c. 430colour illustrations
28 × 25cm, hardcover, in English
ISBN 9 782958 323431
45,00 €
https://www.fondationcustodia.fr/Publication-of-the-catalogue-raisonne-of-Chinese-porcelain-in-the-Frits-Lugt

Recently Published Reference Books :

Leaping The Dragon Gate.

An Excellent Book a must for anyone interested in Transitional Porcelain.

The Sir Michael Butler Collection Of Seventeenth Century Chinese Porcelain

By Teresa Canepa ,Katharine Butler.

A catalog raisonné of the world’s most complete collection of seventeenth-century Chinese porcelain.

With six hundred stunning full-colour illustrations, this book celebrates the most important collection of seventeenth-century Chinese porcelain in the world, assembled by the distinguished British diplomat Sir Michael Butler (1927–2013). Butler’s lavish collection covers most types of porcelain produced at Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, during the seventeenth century.

This comprehensive volume features nearly all of the pieces in the collection, presented in sections featuring the main categories of porcelains in the collection: Late Ming, High Transitional, Shunzhi, Early Kangxi, Mid-Late Kangxi, Monochromes, and Famille Verte, as well as disputed pieces. An introduction by Katharine Butler tells the fascinating story of the circumstances that encouraged her father to acquire, collect, and passionately study Chinese porcelain of the seventeenth century; how he found rare pieces with dates, interesting inscriptions, seal marks, or narrative scenes; and how the collection and his scholarly publications came to be internationally renowned.

544 pages | 600 color plates | 9 3/4 x 11 3/4

Chinese and English Text.

Brushpots: A Collector’s View

By Sam Marsh.

The Chinese title of this book reads “The Profound Reflection of Brushpots: A Collector’s Enlightenment” literally, citing reference to the book Imperial Profound & Reflective Encyclopedia commissioned by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, and The Collected Works of Long Ying, published during the reign of Emperor Wanli, Ming Dynasty. The word “Profound” was chosen meticulously to highlight the breadth and variety of the brush pots collected, and the proposition of their illustrations. The author’s intent to make this book an encyclopedia of brush pots was fairly explicit. On the other hand, “reflection” comes from a mirror, which shows how you look and who you are. It represented the collector’s experience in soul-searching and self-reflection during his journey of art appreciation.

Text in English and Chinese.

Publisher: CA Book Publishing
ISBN: 9789887440895
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 1626 g
Dimensions: 282 x 239 mm

Small China, Early Chinese Miniatures

By Koos de Jong

Small China

Small China presents Chinese miniatures from 5,000 BC up to the 15th century. The pocket size representations of supernatural beings, people, animals, or everyday objects are virtually uncharted in East Asian crafts – even in China, these objects in jade, bronze, ivory, and porcelain are little known. Koos de Jong explores their arcane meanings and traces their production and the market for such treasures, which, contrary to official secular and religious art, include those devoted to taboo subjects such as erotica or humour. The miniatures had many different functions, from insignia, fetishes and devotional objects to burial gifts or toys. They could express good wishes or even serve as bribes. A rare glimpse into the everyday life of ordinary people and into Chinese handicrafts from thousands of years ago.