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Porcelain on Display Decorative and other Uses of Oriental Porcelain in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

Oliver R. Impey
Oliver R. Impey*
Affiliation:
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, England
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Abstract

Chinese porcelain began to reach Europe in quantity in the late fifteenth century, Japanese in the mid seventeenth. Apart from a brief interlude in the mid seventeenth century, Chinese porcelain was imported until well into the nineteenth century, Japanese only until the 1740s. This porcelain was at first a rarity, to be mounted in precious-metal mounts or kept in the Cabinet of Curiosities. Soon it was to be displayed as part of the decorative effect in a room, while in some cases it became the decorative effect; the porcelain room. Porcelain was imitated in Europe and not much used until it was cheap enough. As the “China-mania” died, porcelain was kept as part of room decoration, often in the new china cupboards.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 267: Symposium J – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology III , 1992 , 789
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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References

Notes and references

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