Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition [Hardcover]

John Stevenson (Author), John Guy (Author), Louise Allison Cort (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 1878529226 | ISBN-13: 978-1878529220 | Edition: 1St Edition

Vietnamese potters combined their own native genius with elements derived from neighboring cultures, including Cambodia, Champa, India, and especially China. Yet their decorative motifs, glaze types, production methods, and perhaps even attitudes toward potting differed distinctly from those of China. Using the excellent clay of the Red River valley--smooth, homogeneous, gray-white--they created the most sophisticated ceramic tradition of Southeast Asia. The most definitive study on Vietnamese ceramics to date, this volume is the collaborative effort of experts from around the world, including Vietnam, Japan, England, France, and the United States. They discuss the history and development of Vietnamese ceramics, kiln sites discovered in Vietnam, and technical questions. John Guy (Victoria & Albert Museum, London) contributes essays on Vietnamese ceramics and cultural identity, and Vietnamese Ceramics in international trade. John Stevenson (Seattle Art Museum) explains the historical context and examines the ivory-glazed wares of the Ly and Tran dynasties. Louise Cort (Smithsonian Institution) analyzes Vietnamese ceramics in Japanese contexts, while Regina Krahl (British Museum) shares her expertise on Vietnamese blue-and-white and polychrome traditions. Asako Morimoto (Fukuoka Museum) describes the kilns of northern Vietnam. The book contains additional essays by Philippe Truong of the Louvre, Trian Nguyen of UC Berkeley, and Peter Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lastly, Nguyen Dinh Chien of the Hanoi Historical Museum and John Guy address chronological issues and list dated and datable ancient Vietnamese ceramics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Art Media Resources Ltd; 1St Edition edition (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878529226
• ISBN-13: 978-1878529220
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book expanded my perception of Vietnamese Ceramics, November 25, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition (Hardcover)

I found this book both enjoyable and disconcerting. As a modest collector of Vietnamese blue and white, mostly acquired recently in Indonesia and the Philippines, I found a great deal of information and a large number of illustrations which helped me with dating and provenance. There are some terrific illustrations of early pieces which I can only dream of finding. Many of the illustrations of later blue and white, (equally unobtainable and unseen in the shops of Kuta or Manila), were new to me and show a convergence to more conventional Chinese forms of design. (I personally find the earlier Vietnamese pieces so full of vigour and simplicity missing in most Ming pieces).

To make things worse, the book opened a whole new realm of marvelous earlier (mostly) monochrome pieces which has sent me out on a new search.

You may gather that I enjoyed it tremendously, I know of no other book which covers the subject in such detail. My wife will hate it because my collecting will take on a more vigorous life as a result of reading it!