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Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets
Virginia Bower, Josephine Hadley Knapp, Stephen Little, Robert Wilson Torchia, with contributions by Judy Ozone and William Sargent
Published 1998
360 pages
This volume, the second in the series to catalog the collection of decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art, focuses primarily on Chinese ceramics. Also included are rugs and carpets from the collection of Peter A. B. Widener, two Chinese paintings dating from the 19th century, and a 17th-century coromandel screen. The majority of the Gallery’s Chinese ceramics, ranging from earthenware and stoneware to polychrome porcelain, are drawn from the renowned collections of the Widener and Harry Garfield Steele families and date from the Kangxi reign (1662–1772) of the Qing dynasty. The Qing-dynasty porcelains are arranged according to color and shape, and each work is reproduced in color for the first time. Technical examinations were carried out by the conservation and scientific research departments and the results are recorded here.