The Potter's Art

The essays in this book grew out of a meeting of international scholars, curators, and potters who came together in 1991 to share knowledge and ideas about the Koerner collection of European ceramics, which is housed at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology. The 600 pieces in the collection were made between 1500 and 1900 and were found in kitchens and dining-rooms as tools of food preparation, serving, and display; in cellars as storage containers; in churches as religious figures and vessels for holy water; in pharmacies as containers of medicine; and in palaces as tiled stoves. In their many variations they represent an integral part of human history.

The contributors to The Potter's Art investigate these many variations. Writing from different disciplines, they use the collection as a 'mine of stimuli' for the consideration of such things as the collecting process; how Chinese porcelain became a prized possession in Europe; how religious persecution played a role in the spread of tin-glazed wares; how designs and shapes travelled from unlikely places to be adopted by the European potter; and how technological innovations created new markets and made others obsolete.