"Exhibition presented by the National Gallery of Victoria in association with the Australian Gallery Directors' Council with the assistance of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council.

Glazed ceramics, through their physical resilience and social relevance, have become a persistent indicator of cultural contact in Southeast Asia for over a millennium of the region's history. This lavishly illustrated historical survey includes introductions to technical and stylistic aspects of the ceramic traditions of China, Vietnam, and Thailand, over two hundred illustrations of stoneware and porcelain ceramics, and an extensive biography.

"China has a flourishing maritime trade since antiquity. The collection of Ambassador and Mrs Charles Muller, which they began assembling between 1970 and 1973, when the ambassador was stationed in Indonesia, includes around three hundred pieces of Chinese export ceramics manufactured for the South-East Asian market and dating from the first to the seventeenth century, among which is an assortment of rare "Swallow" porcelain. This exceptional collection ws bequeathed to the Baur Foundation and underlines the broad variety of Chinese cermaics, ranging from the solid stoneware of the first century to the translucent and celadon stoneware of the Song and Yuan periods (9th-14th c.) and the "blue and white" ware of the Yuan and Ming dynasties (14th-17th c.)." --Book Jacket.

Southeast Asia is known to many as a region teeming with tourist destinations, economic opportunities and ex-colonies, but a lesser known facet is its colourful and myriad cultures in which ceramics form an integral part of the social fabric. Focusing primarily on the Classical Period (800-1500 CE), this book views ancient Southeast Asian culture through the lens of ceramic production and trade, influenced but not completely overshadowed by its powerful neighbour, China. In this landmark publication, noted archaeologist and scholar John N. Miksic constructs a vivid picture of the development of Southeast Asia's unique ceramics. Along with three contributing authors - Pamela M. Watkins, Dawn F. Rooney and Michael Flecker - he summarizes the fruits of their research over the last forty years, beginning in Singapore with the founding of the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society in 1969. The result is a comprehensive and insightful overview of the technology, aesthetics and organization, both economic and political, of seemingly diverse territories in pre-colonial Southeast Asia. It is essential reading for all those with an interest in the economic history of the region, and also for anyone who seeks a better understanding of the brilliant but too often underestimated material culture of Southeast Asia.