China Without Dragons: Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic Society

Author: Regina Krahl

Publisher: CA Book Publishing

USD $122.00

This fully illustrated and researched catalogue commemorates an exhibition of over 200 pieces of Chinese and related ceramics collected within the members of the Oriental Ceramic Society of London. The selection spans the complete range from Neolithic to contemporary ceramics, from minor kilns in many different regions to the major kilns working for the court, and from pieces of academic interest to world-famous masterpieces. It privileges unusual and rarely seen artifacts and avoids well known, repetitive designs such as that of the dragon, which is so firmly identified with China that it has become a cliche of Chinese art. It also aims to demonstrate the vast variety of wares and the inventiveness of Asian potters well beyond the classic confines.

Text in English and Chinese.

Cloth-bound hard cover with dust jacket, 360 pages, 9” x 12”, colour, published in 2020

ISBN:978-988-8272-18-1

Description

Regina Krahl is an independent researcher of Chinese works of art, whose many publications include the three-volume catalogue raisonné Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, edited by John Ayers (1986), and the four-volume catalogue Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection (1994–2010).

 

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Book Review of China Without Dragons in Arts of Asia

 

JULY TO AUGUST 2019   |   MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

THIS BULKY volume is a retrospective catalogue of an exhibition held by the Oriental Ceramic Society (OCS) at Sotheby’s London from November 3rd to 9th, 2016. Titled “China without Dragons”, the exhibition, in the words of Regina Krahl, curator and editor, aimed “to take advantage of the amazing variety of Asian ceramics and to focus on unusual and rarely seen pieces rather than the classic styles and most frequently illustrated patterns.” Hence, the dragon design and other cliches in Chinese art were avoided in the selection. Different from those previously organised by the OCS, this exhibition was naturally not thematic, nor devoted to a single dynasty or decorative type. Instead, emphasis was placed on rarity and pieces with academic significance and interest…

 

by Peter Y.K. Lam

 

Click here to access Arts of Asia‘s July to August 2019 issue for the full article.