Asian Art and History

Lecture

Asian Art and History The Global Trade
in Chinese Export Porcelain

William R. Sargent, Ph.D., Independent Curator

From raw materials to finished products, from the wharves of China to the tables of the world — since the first pieces were brought to Europe via the Silk Road, through the discovery of sea routes and the invention of hard-paste porcelain at Meissen to today, when ceramics are ubiquitous — Chinese porcelain has held a special place on our tables and in our minds. Porcelain was initially held in the highest esteem, taking on magical and religious connotations, and was reserved for only the highest echelons of society. Even as it became widely available, our appreciation has not lessened. The survival of so much fragile beauty remains an enticement to know more about the technological, artistic and social implications of this astonishing material.

This presentation is part of the Asian Art and History series.

Image: Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Lady at a Tea Table, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 23.101.

William R. Sargent

William R. Sargent

William R. Sargent, Ph.D., is an independent curator; former H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art at the Peabody Essex Museum (1978-2009); senior consultant in Chinese art, Bonhams (U.S.); Museum Expert Adviser (Historical Pictures) Hong Kong Museum of Art. He has given nearly 300 lectures around the world, and consulted with 28 museums in Asia, Europe and America. His publications include Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics at the Peabody Essex Museum (2012; 2013 winner of The American Ceramic Circle Book of the Year Award), Chinese Porcelain in The Conde Collection (2016), The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures (1991) and Views of the Pearl River Delta: Macao, Canton and Hong Kong (1996).