Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Chinese ceramics of the Tang and Liao periods receive the most comprehensive examination in Western literature in this new study by one of the world’s foremost scholars on Far Eastern art. William Watson describes and analyses all aspects of these extraordinary wares wholly from the evidence of the most recent excavations and Chinese archaeological studies appearing since 1949. No other history of the ceramics of this era has attempted so detailed a survey based on the latest findings. The ceramics of the Tang dynasty (618-907) through its lead-glazed pottery and its figurines dramatically reflect the exchange of ideas that accompanied the expansion of Chinese influence into Central Asia. The mid-Tang period marked the beginnings of a huge increase in trade tea salt and pottery were the main goods traded within China and gradually the exchange of pottery came to assume an importance comparable to that of silk in the external trade with India and the Near East. There is nothing in earlier ceramics that compares with the fortuitous beauty of the splashed decoration on the Tang lead-glazed pieces or with the unpredictable ornament afforded by the suffused glazes on stoneware. At no other time in their history have Chinese potters played more boldly on their themes than during the Tang dynasty and none of their heirs since has treated extravagance so lightly or has so well delivered the freshness that is expressed through such technical perfection. (OS)