This book explores the relationship between collecting Chinese ceramics, interior design and display in Britain through the eyes of collectors, designers and tastemakers during the years leading to, during and following the Second World War. The Ionides Collection of European style Chinese export porcelain forms the nucleus of this study – defined by its design hybridity – offering insights into the agency of Chinese porcelain in diverse contexts, from seventeenth-century Batavia to twentieth-century Britain, raising questions about notions of Chineseness, Britishness, and identity politics across time and space. Through the biographies of the collectors, this book highlights the role of collecting Chinese art objects, particularly porcelain, in the construction of individual and group identities. Social networks linking the Ionides to agents and dealers, auctioneers, and museum specialists bring into focus the dynamics of collecting during this period, the taste of the Ionides and their self-fashioning as collectors. The book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of art history, history of collections, interior design, Chinese studies, and material culture studies.

"Amanda E. Lance places Historic Deerfield's extraordinary collection of delftware on view for the first time in this book made possible by the Ray J. and Anne K. Groves Publication Fund. A specialist in the fields of ceramics, silver, and glass, Ms. Lange's meticulous research on tin-glazed earthenware - commonly called delft - will both engage and enlighten readers of this new publication which has been prepared to accompany a major exhibition on view at the western Massachusetts museum through November 2002. Delftwave at Historic Deerfield, 1600-1800 is the first in a series of catalogues featuring the museum's nationally renowned decorative arts collections."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved