Four Centuries Of Blue And White The Frelinghuysen Collection Of Chinese & Japanese Export Porcelain

Carefully assembled over more than fifty years, the Frelinghuysen Collection brings together an exceptionally wide range of blue and white porcelain: Chinese pieces specially made for Portuguese merchants in the sixteenth century, late nineteenth-century commissions for the Royal Thai Court, numerous Chinese classics dating from the era of European trading companies, and a remarkable selection of Japanese porcelain destined for export. The breadth of the exhibition bears witness to the various impulses that propelled the Asian porcelain trade, and offers a perspective on the interaction between East and West from the beginning of the modern era to the dawn of the twentieth century.

This first significant study of Chinese and Japanese blue and white since the 1990s brings together more than 300 pieces from the Frelinghuysen collection, illustrated and analysed in detail, as well as 250 others listed in a compendium. The book is divided into thematic chapters that reflect the many ways in which Chinese and Japanese porcelain has been traded and collected around the world.