"This is the book on porcelain we have been waiting for. . . . A
remarkable achievement."-Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with
Amber Eyes A sweeping cultural and economic history of porcelain,
from the eighteenth century to the present Porcelain was invented
in medieval China-but its secret recipe was first reproduced in
Europe by an alchemist in the employ of the Saxon king Augustus the
Strong. Saxony's revered Meissen factory could not keep porcelain's
ingredients secret for long, however, and scores of Holy Roman
princes quickly founded their own mercantile manufactories, soon to
be rivaled by private entrepreneurs, eager to make not art but
profits. As porcelain's uses multiplied and its price plummeted, it
lost much of its identity as aristocratic ornament, instead taking
on a vast number of banal, yet even more culturally significant,
roles. By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it became
essential to bourgeois dining, and also acquired new functions in
insulator tubes, shell casings, and teeth. Weaving together the
experiences of entrepreneurs and artisans, state bureaucrats and
female consumers, chemists and peddlers, Porcelain traces the
remarkable story of "white gold" from its origins as a princely
luxury item to its fate in Germany's cataclysmic twentieth century.
For three hundred years, porcelain firms have come and gone, but
the industry itself, at least until very recently, has endured.
After Augustus, porcelain became a quintessentially German
commodity, integral to provincial pride, artisanal industrial
production, and a familial sense of home. Telling the story of
porcelain's transformation from coveted luxury to household
necessity and flea market staple, Porcelain offers a fascinating
alternative history of art, business, taste, and consumption in
Central Europe.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
