Examples of Roman period red-gloss and red-slip pottery (terra sigillata) found during excavations in the Athenian Agora form the focus of this volume. These fine wares, like the other table wares of the first seven centuries A.D. discussed here, were all imported--a very different situation to earlier periods where Athens was known as a great ceramic-making center, and perhaps the result of mass destruction of potters' workshops during the Sullan sack of 86 B.C. While the image of a demolished pottery industry is tragic, the consequent conglomeration of fine-wares from many parts of the Roman empire in one city makes the Athenian Agora a tremendous source of comparanda for archaeologists working all round the Mediterranean. Written by the world's leading expert on Roman pottery, this huge catalogue illustrating and identifying multiple shapes and types of decoration will therefore be an essential reference book.

During the Middle Ages decorative floor tiles were used in abbey churches, royal palaces, parish churches and the homes of wealthy citizens. Tiles were durable and hygienic and added a new decorative element to the interior. Despite their simple tools and kiln equipment, the medieval tile makers proved extremely skilful in the production of different types of tile. They ranged from variously shaped plain tiles, which were assembled into complex mosaic floors, to two-coloured inlaid tiles, and stamped-relief and line-impressed tiles, all decorated with a wealth of different patterns and designs. Many medieval tiles disappeared during nineteenth-century restorations but the designs lived on in the copies made by Victorian tile manufacturers. Throughout Britain, tiles can still be seen 'in situ' on the sites of former abbeys as well as in medieval cathedrals and parish churches, and the British Museum has an extensive and important collection.

This beautiful and absorbing book explores the remarkable collection of 'Professional Yorkshireman' W.A. Ismay MBE (1910-2001), the UK's most prolific collector of post-war British studio pottery. "I really do not know any employment of money more productive of an enhancement of one's daily life than that of buying good pots for daily use - they are so agreeable to handle that even washing-up becomes a pleasure rather than a chore!" W.A. Ismay W.A. Ismay amassed over 3,600 pieces by more than 500 potters between 1955 and 2001. Surrounded by his family of pots, he lived in a tiny terraced house in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and left his collection and its associated archive to the city of York upon his death. This eclectic collection contains objects created by many of the most significant potters working in the UK, such as Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew, as well as examples of work by lesser-known makers. Once he discovered a potter, Ismay supported them throughout their career, carefully assembling groups of work that off er succinct visual overviews of development in style and skill. What would become known as Ismay's Yorkshire Tea Ceremony encapsulates all the aspects of collecting handmade pottery which were important to him. Seeing himself as a temporary custodian of his collection, rather than the owner, he was keen to allow access and share it. Ismay enjoyed inviting people into his home, encouraging them to pick up items and experience them haptically. This social side of collecting generated close friendships which are revealed through the anecdotes, gossip, obsessions, opinions and touching gestures of support documented within Ismay's archive. The archive is a monumental and unique creation, which documents his extraordinary life and reveals intriguing glimpses into the development of his character, as well as the personal and societal changes that impacted his interests and activities. New academic research into a little-studied collection and archive explores Ismay's journey as a collector. This book offers fresh perspectives on a marginalized area of British modernism. Tracing the collection's journey from private to public ownership illuminates issues surrounding the acquisition by a museum of a large personal collection and archive, revealing the transformative effect it has had on both curatorial practice and the ambition of regional public institutions. The W.A. Ismay Collection offers a well-documented example of the valuable contribution collectors can make to the British studio ceramics movement. The publication of this research marks 20 years since the W.A. Ismay Collection moved from private to public ownership and to celebrate that anniversary, an exhibition of the collection will take place at York Art Gallery's Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA).

This book is the culmination of nearly thirty years' work in caring for, studying, and developing the collections in this Museum by Timothy Wilson, long-time Keeper of Western Art. Wilson is well-known as a specialist in the study of European Renaissance ceramics. The Ashmolean collections have their origins in the collection of C.D.E. Fortnum (1820-1899), but have been developed further in the last quarter-century, so that they can claim to be one of the top such collections of Renaissance ceramics worldwide. This book, containing 289 catalogue entries, will completely encompass the Museum's collection of postclassical Italian pottery, including pieces from excavations. In addition it will include catalogue entries for some seventy selected pieces of pottery from France, the Low Countries, England, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Mexico, in order to present a wide-ranging picture of the development of tin-glaze pottery from Islamic Spain through to recent times. It will also include an essay by Kelly Domoney of Cranfield University, and Elisabeth Gardner of the Ashmolean's Conservation Department, on the technical analysis and conservation history of some pieces in the collection.

Since 1973 the Westerwald Prize distinguishes outstanding ceramic works in the context of a competition and presents them in an exhibition. The great interest in the award and geopolitical developments prompted the Westerwald district, in 1999, to publish its call for entries no longer nationally but Europe-wide. Cultural exchange was specifically fostered thanks to this decision. This year once again, the works, selected from among 425 submissions, prove the high artistic sophistication of works in ceramic throughout Europe. The catalogue presents all the works on show, which reflect the essential trends in contemporary ceramics. Exhibition views along with the jury report complete the documentation of one of Europe's most highly endowed ceramics awards. Text in English and German.

Food and dining were transformed in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment, and these profound changes continue to resonate today. What many of us now eat, the way our food is prepared and how we dine are the result of radical changes that occurred in France from 1650 until the French Revolution in 1789. Over thirty French and English recipes of the period are presented in this cookbook, offering readers a taste of the past. Amusing stories, culinary insights, and snippets of history outline the cultural milieu of the time. The King's Peas is richly illustrated with pictures of paintings, books, silver, glass and ceramics to stimulate the imagination - and the appetite. You are cordially invited to take part in this delectable historical feast.

This book examines Greek vase-paintings that depict humorous, burlesque, and irreverent images of Greek mythology and the gods. Many of the images present the gods and heroes as ridiculous and ugly. While the narrative content of some images may appear to be trivial, others address issues that are deeply serious. When placed against the background of the religious beliefs and social frameworks from which they spring, these images allow us to explore questions relating to their meaning in particular communities. Throughout, we see indications that Greek vase-painters developed their own comedic narratives and visual jokes. The images enhance our understanding of Greek society in just the same way as their more sober siblings in serious art. David Walsh is a Visiting Research Scholar in the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures at The University of Manchester."

The pottery of Acoma Pueblo stands at the height of ceramics among the Pueblo Indian pottery traditions. This exhaustively researched book traces the history of Acoma pottery over the past seven hundred years, concentrating on the periods from 1300 to 1930. with a summary of the modern period. The authors studied over several thousand examples, presenting more than 800 examples here, along with dozens of photographs of potters. The book identifies more than nine hundred Acoma potters, several of whom are credited for the first time, who worked between about 1880 to the present. Acoma pottery has evolved significantly in form and decoration over the past seven hundred years, each change reflecting the interplay of many factors, including advances in technology, individual innovations, changing markets, and the evolving uses of pottery vessels. The book is a comprehensive illustrated survey of Acoma pottery at a depth and level of detail that has never before been achieved, and will be the standard for all studies in the future.

A full-colour illustrated biography of the life of Susie Cooper and her ceramic company's output. During her sixty-five-year career, Susie Cooper introduced more than 4,500 ceramic patterns and shapes, making her one of the most prolific, versatile and influential designers the industry has ever seen. Between the 1920s and 1980s she moved from the bold hand-painting of the 'Jazz Age' through delicate wash banding and aerograph techniques to sophisticated lithographic transfer printing on both earthenware and bone china. Cooper not only led the charge of gifted female designers in the male-dominated Potteries but also pioneered the role of women in factory management. Alan Marshall here charts her progress from the creation of patterns for Gray's Pottery in the 1920s, to running her own Susie Cooper Productions from the 1930s to the 1950s, and designing for Wedgwood from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Sir William Van Horne (1843-1915), connaisseur bourre de talent dont la renommee est surtout attribuable a sa contribution a la construction du Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique, a assemble l'une des collections les plus completes de ceramiques japonaises en Amerique du Nord. Obsession est un recit lumineux expliquant l'origine et l'evolution de sa passion envers l'etude et l'acquisition de pres de 1 200 objets. Ron Graham dresse le profil du personnage plus grand que nature que fut Van Horne en plus de rassembler des essais sur la place qu'il a occupee au sommet des collectionneurs d'art dans le Mille carre dore, ou Golden Square Mile, de Montreal et la perennite de sa collection apres sa mort. En exergue des textes, le lecteur pourra decouvrir des documents et des photographies historiques, un catalogue detaille de plus de trois cents objets exposes au Musee royal de l'Ontario et au Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, de meme qu'une selection de splendides reproductions des carnets de notes personnels de Van Horne et des aquarelles raffinees provenant des archives du Musee des beaux-arts de l'Ontario. Publie parallelement a la tenue d'une importante exposition au musee Gardiner de Toronto et au Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, Obsession presente une remarquable collection replacee dans le contexte de l'existence et de la carriere d'un geant du secteur canadien des affaires au dix-neuvieme siecle.

In 1948, Gilbert Portanier, a painter, discovered clay as a material to work with at Vallauris, the ceramics centre in the south of France. There he developed his unique style in the medium. What is so significant about his early work is his mastery of drawing on pottery. In the early years, Portanier "drew" with the brush on his pieces mainly Arcadian genre scenes inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity. On the look-out for new colour combinations, colour textures and colour compositions, however, Portanier gradually distanced himself from drawing and switched to free painting on ceramics. "Every one of his pieces belongs in a museum," thus Picasso commenting on Gilbert Portanier's "painterly ceramics". And indeed Portanier, like no other, conjures colourful, surrealist abstract-figurative paintings on the ceramics he has designed. In his pieces, the "Mediterranean delight" in representing and communicating comes into its own. The inexhaustible riches of Portanier's teeming imagination are unique in the international ceramics scene, a status that has been justly rewarded with numerous international prizes and awards and is now being showcased in this comprehensive monograph.

In 1984 the Getty Museum acquired a collection of Italian Renaissance majolica, or tin-glazed earthenware. This volume catalogues this collection of 45 objects spanning 400 years, including a pair of 18th-century candlesticks representing mythological scenes and a tabletop with hunting scenes.