Filling in the Holes – a Historical Survey of Pierced Porcelain and its Derivatives
by Tony Miller
The OCS is delighted to announce that this year’s AGM Lecture will be delivered by Tony Miller who will trace the development of kilns at Jingdezhen and their interactions with the wider world through the history of pierced porcelain.
By the Qianlong reign, one of the 23 workshops in the Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen was specifically reserved for the artisans who specialized in carving and piercing clay. However, Tony Miller will argue that piercing, along with incising, carving and otherwise impressing patterns on vessels, has been part of the potter’s repertoire of decorative skills for at least five millennia. In choosing the title ‘Filling in the Holes’, Tony indicates that there is much that we still do not know about the way the kilns at Jingdezhen developed, and how they interacted not only with other kilns in China, but also with those further afield. In tracing the history of pierced porcelain, he aims to fill in some of the blanks in our knowledge.
Tony Miller is a long-time resident of Hong Kong with a keen interest in Chinese painting, porcelain, jade and the conversations across borders that have influenced art and style through the ages. He has previously spoken to Members on Mounted Chinese Porcelain, Jiang Qi’s Tao Ji, the Yixian Luohans, Chinoiserie and Carved Porcelain of the 19th Century. In 2005-06, he and his wife Nga-ching co-organized the exhibition Elegance in Relief – Carved Porcelain from Jingdezhen of the 19th to early 20th Century at the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In his book The Missing Buddhas, published last year, Tony exploded the myths shrouding the origins of the group of life-size Liao dynasty sancai Luohans that grace several museums in the West. Tony is a member of the Min Chiu Society and a former President of Hong Kong’s Oriental Ceramic Society,
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