The Chinese ceramics in the Rijksmusuem comprise one of the finest but least known collections of Chinese porcelain in the world. This book is the first scholarly publication of the Ming and Qing export wares in the collection. The 400 pieces included, many published here for the first time, are described and illustrated in full color. These include Kraak and Transitional porcelains, a wide selection of Kangxi underglaze blue and polychrome ware, famille rose and other eighteenth-century enamelled wares. Also represented are Chine de commande, blanc de Chine and Yixing wares. In addition there is an important section of imperial wares and pieces made for the Chinese market which includes rare and unusual pieces.

"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.