Chinese Porcelain The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection (Part I and II)

Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1987 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. English and Chinese text.; Hardcover (silk cloth without dust jacket - as issued. Two volumes in slipcase.); 27.5 x 37 cm; 5.5 Kg; Volume I with 364 pages and Volume II with 240 pages. Includes 400 colour illustrations including 59 panoramic views.; Used books. The spines are slightly faded as usual with minor signs of wear. The exterior of the hardcover show minor signs of wear. The exterior of the slipcase show signs of wear, and is worn at the top right corner. The interior of both volumes looks as new. Includes the pictorial paper wrapped around the slipcase, which has tears on the bottom and top.; Catalogue from the exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art of 163 objects, the majority are products of the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen.; "The Hong Kong Museum of Art is proud to present an exhibition of pieces selected from the Tianminlou Collection of Chinese porcelain, a collection that has been assembled over the last four decades with meticulous care and discriminating taste. The exhibition features sixty-five pieces of blue and white, fifty-four pieces of polychrome and forty-four pieces of monochrome, totalling one hundred and sixty-tree objects dating from the 13th to the 18th century, they are the very best of Mr. Ko Shih Chao's acquisitions made in the last twenty years. A large majority of the pieces are products of the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen. They present a spectrum of techniques and styles, and tell the story to the constant striving by potters of Jingdezhen to refine the porcelain body, to master the intricacies of firing, and to invent new glazes from metals, a forth element provided by nature. It is an extraordinary chapter - and the climatic chapter - from the seven-thousand year saga of ceramics. Through the generosity of Mr. Ko Shih Chao the Tianminlou Collection has been put in public view. In addition to lending his collection for exhibition, Mr. Ko has also sponsored the publication of the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition. To the catalogue itself he has contributed many entries as well as one of the essays. The value of the catalogue has been enhanced by the essays contributed by Mr. John Ayers, Mr Julian Thompson and Mr Laurence Tam. It was Mr. Ko Shih Chao idea to include in the catalogue panoramic illustrations of a number of pieces so that the swept and subtlety of their designs can be fully appreciated. The catalogue is itself a visual delight thanks to the superb technique of the photographers: Mr Ogawa Tadahiro who did the panoramic photographs, Mr Wakisaka Susumu who took most of the colour transparencies for Volume I of the catalogue. " excerpt from the Preface by Christina Chu, Curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, July 1987..