Customer Reviews

The Art of Ceramics: European Ceramic Design 1500-1830 (Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture)

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If you are seeking a well written and illustrated introductory volume on European ceramics, this book would be ideal. It should also appeal to the more informed ceramics enthusiast given that Howard Coutts's text is detailed, easily readable and comprehensive. He covers the development of the main areas of European ceramics such as Italian maiolica, porcelain discovery in the west, French rococo, English ceramics and the classical revival. There are many excellent quality color reproductions of superior standard examples of various styles of ceramics. The general printing quality is additionally very good.

I had hoped that this book would have a lot of color pictures of high end porcelain. It does. I checked it out of the library along with European Ceramics, Wedgewood, Royal Austrian Porcelain, Nymphenburger Porzellen, and English Pottery 1620-1840. Personally I ended up buying The Art of Ceramics-European Ceramic Design 1500-1830 because it covers English and European porcelain with detailed history and a lot of pictures. Many of the pieces in the book are also shown in the more expensive books. European Ceramics (less text) and The Art of Ceramics have a lot in common and you won't be disappointed with either. The other books are specific to their manufacturer or country. I was satisfied that other books I own display the same or similar items and that the rest were encompassed in this book. The description of 320 pages is incorrect. there are 256 pages.