In an entertaining, clear fashion, this volume studies the technical, social and stylistic development of porcelain from its beginnings under the T'ang dynasty in ancient China to its golden age in Europe and America. Along the way we marvel at the Ming and Ch'ing porcelains and learn how Augustus the Strong, obsessed with the beauty of Oriental porcelain, patronized the production of the first true European porcelain in eighteenth century Germany. The book then follows the spreading popularity of porcelain across Europe to England and to America, ending with modern movements in porcelain that include the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.

Providing a basis for his wide-ranging stylistic analysis of this elegant ware, the author opens his text with a detailed discussion of making hard paste and soft paste porcelain as well as bone china. The major factories and known modelers and designers are identified in this sweeping, often exciting story of the art of porcelain making-the temperamental German porcelain masters are described as constantly storming off from one employer to another.