Customer Reviews

Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts (Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture)

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This handsome book concentrates on the gift giving habits of the princes of Saxony. It was common practice for royaly to bestow gifts to foreign courts with the aim of gaining favour and influence. Meissen porcelain, after its initial manufacture in 1710, was highly prized and fabulously expensive. It thus served as a highly desirable gift.

I approached this volume as someone with a general interest in porcelain. This publication is really intended for the specialist in European history as well as those with a more profound knowledge of porcelain. The historical and gift information provided is extremely dense and detailed; far too much for the general reader but surely very satisfying for the expert.

There are numerous illustrations, mainly of porcelain and other types of gifts. The quality of the photography is generally though not consistently of superior quality. Invariably the illustrations are small in size; this reduces the pleasure of viewing and makes detail difficult to appreciate. I often felt that less historic detail might have freed up more space for the photographs!