Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces by Patricia Ferguson ( Philip Wilson Publishers)

Even knowing the extraordinary amount of research, time and energy the author invested in this book, it still far exceeds both imagination and expectations. The hundred objects chosen are disparate, and each important and interesting in its own ways: as rarities, as historic artifacts, as commentaries on fashion, taste and manners, as monuments to provenance. Together they reveal an aspect of British social history and culture that is freshly told and supported with archival material (correspondence and inventories), paintings and photographs. One doesn't have to love ceramics (pottery and porcelain) to find the text absorbing and the photographic illustrations varied and beautiful. This is a book to be admired and read, both entry by entry and cover to cover.

The aim of this publication is to introduce the rich and varied ceramics in the National Trust's vast and encyclopedic collection, numbering approximately 75,000 artifacts, housed in 250 historic properties in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. One hundred key pieces have been selected from this rich treasure trove, each contributing to our knowledge of ceramic patronage and history, revealing the very personal stories of ownership, display, taste, and consumption.

The selection includes the following Continental wares: "Red-figure" wares, Italian armorial tablewares, Dutch Delft from the Greek A factory - owned by Adrianus Kocx - Chinese Kraak ware, Dehua ware, Japanese Kakiemon-style and Imari-style tablewares and garnitures, Meissen table sculpture by Johann Joachim Kändler and tablewares attributed to Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck, Castelli fayence from the Grue workshop, and wares from the following porcelain manufactories: Doccia, Vienna, Vincennes, Sèvres, Dihl, and Feulliet.
English pottery and porcelain includes delftware, salt-glazed stoneware, creamware, Wedgwood Black Basalt and Etruscan ware, Chelsea, Bow, Worcester, and Derby porcelain, Minton China, De Morgan, and Martin ware.
And from the Americas, Pueblo ware.

Many are published for the first time, sometimes illustrated in their original interiors. Collectively, the selection surveys patterns of ceramic collecting by the British aristocracy and gentry over a four hundred year period.