Another Cool Book

This is my other new favorite book…the Chinese version of the previous post. There are 34 plates reprinted from beautiful, rich watercolors depicting the entire process of producing 18th century export ware from mining clay to selling the finished pots. The photos here depict mining by hand, oxen stomping the clay in pits, packaging prepared clay into ‘bricks’ for transport, making pots, cutting wood for the firing, loading pots into saggers, and an enameling kiln. Just like the Olympics that just passed, the sheer amount of human exertion is impressive.








2 Responses to “Another Cool Book”

  1. nancy selvin

    Dear Dan,
    I cannot believe my good fortune in finding this post on “The Book of Porcelain” in your blog. I have been looking for the source of these 34 images for over 20 years. Long story: around 1975 I took slides of the 34 images and have been showing them to my students on and off ever since. I had checked the book, which was not in English, out of the UC Berkeley Art Library but made no notation as to the author or title and eventually lost track of the source. Recently when I wanted to document where I got the these images, without the author or title, I had no luck finding the book…Ah ha along come the skills of the younger generation ….one of my students, at CCA, showed my how to do an image search on google image and lo and behold your site came up. I just ordered a copy of the book from Black Swan Books in Richmond VA. THANK YOU ! hope we meet one of these days…..Nancy Selvin, Berkeley CA

    Reply
    • Dan Finnegan

      That’s pretty cool…I’m not the savviest internet person, but lots of great connections get made. I took a look at your work…really excellent. best wishes, Dan

      Reply

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