Themes and Variation: The Zisha Pottery of Chen Mingyuan

This volume is the first of its kind with such extensive exhibits and research work devoted to one single Yixing potter. Chen Mingyuan, a master potter active during the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, created zisha pottery (purple clay or yixing pottery) in the forms of objects for scholar's desk, archaistic vessels, tea wares and trompe I'oeil pieces. He enriched the art of zisha potting with the cultivated taste of the literati. This catalog features 100 pieces of zisha pottery bearing Chen Mingyuan's inscriptions and seals selected from the Shanghai Museum and the Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Includes three most recent research papers on the subject by Wang Qingzheng and Lu Minghua of the Shanghai Museum, Terese Tse Bartholomew of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and Lai Suk Yee of the Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.