This book provides a guide to the history of SSvres porcelain as epitomised by seventy of the most important examples in the Royal Collection.

Japanese Imari porcelain, with its vivid red, blue and gold palette, reached Europe in the late seventeenth century and created a sensation among collectors accustomd to the more austere palette of blue-and-white Chinese wares. Soon Imari chargers and full garnitures graced the palaces and great houses of Europe and formed significant portions of the massive collections of Asian porcelains formed by many kings and princes. When high prices and increased competition from China caused imports of Imari to slow in the mid-eignteenth century, Imari continues to exert a strong influence on both the design and palette used to create porcelains at the newly established porcelain factories both in England and on the Continent.--pg. 6.

Peggy Fitzroy is clever enough to fake her way into King George's court in London, but is she clever enough to survive in his Palace of Spies?

"Augustus the Strong (1670-1733) had long been a collector of Japanese and Chinese porcelain, and it was to house his collection that the Japanese Palace in Dresden was purchased. In 1729 Augustus enlarged the building to nearly double its original size in order to create a "porcelain palace." One gallery was to be entirely devoted to Meissen porcelain, including the exceptional animal figures that are the subject of this book and the exhibition it accompanies."--BOOK JACKET.

Since the early seventeenth century when the secret of porcelain was first carried from China to Japan by Korean potters, Japan has produced some of the world's most exquisite porcelains. The Kakiemon masters in Arita on the island of Kyushu gained particular renown for the quality of their colourful overglaze enamels and artistic designs. Through exports Kakiemon ware had a profound impact on the development of European porcelain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, inspiring ceramic manufacturers in both continental Europe and England to reach new levels of technical and artistic achievement. Dragons, Tigers and Bamboo highlights 170 masterpieces from the Bill and Molly Anne Macdonald Collection at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto, Canada. This extraordinary collection illustrates many different aspects of the historical interaction between Japanese and European porcelain during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is unquestionably the best cross-cultural porcelain collection in Canada and is among the best of its kind in the world. Illustrated with more than 160 full-colour photographs commissioned for this volume, Dragons, Tigers and Bamboo for the first time makes the Macdonald Collection accessible to an international audience.

An in-depth look at the British monarchy that’s “a superb synthesis of historical analysis, politics, and top-notch royal gossip” (Kirkus Reviews). Since William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, crossed the English Channel in 1066 to defeat King Harold II and unite England’s various kingdoms, forty-one kings and queens have sat on Britain’s throne. “Shining examples of royal power and majesty alongside a rogue’s gallery of weak, lazy, or evil monarchs,” as Tracy Borman describes them in her sparkling chronicle, Crown & Sceptre. Ironically, during very few of these 955 years has the throne’s occupant been unambiguously English—whether Norman French, the Welsh-born Tudors, the Scottish Stuarts, and the Hanoverians and their German successors to the present day. Acknowledging the intrinsic fascination with British royalty, Borman lifts the veil to reveal the remarkable characters and personalities who have ruled and, since the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, more ceremonially reigned. It is a crucial distinction explaining the staying power of the monarchy as the royal family has evolved and adapted to the needs and opinions of its people, avoiding the storms of rebellion that brought many of Europe’s royals to an abrupt end. Richard II; Henry VIII; Elizabeth I; George III; Victoria; Elizabeth II: their names evoke eras and the dramatic events Borman recounts. She is equally attuned to the fabric of monarchy: royal palaces; the way monarchs have been portrayed in art, on coins, in the media; the ceremony and pageantry surrounding the crown. Elizabeth II is already one of the longest reigning monarchs in history. Crown & Sceptre is a fitting tribute to her remarkable longevity and that of the magnificent institution she represents. “Crown & Sceptre brings us in short, vivid chapters from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth herself, much of it constituting a dark record of bumping off adversaries, rivals and spouses, confiscating vast estates and military invasions…. [A] lucid, character-rich book.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Borman’s deep understanding of English royalty shines.” —Chris Schluep, Amazon Editors’ Picks, The Best History Books of February 2022