1. Home
2. Publications
3. Jorge Welsh Research & Publishing Books

The RA Collection of Chinese Enamelled Copper. A Collector’s Vision (Volume V)

by Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, Ana Moás, Ching-fei Shih

Following in the tradition of the previous volumes of The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics. A Collector’s Vision, the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2016, Global by Design Chinese Ceramics from the R. Albuquerque Collection, loans to other temporary exhibitions and conferences based on the collection, this volume is the result of Renato de Albuquerque’s quest to continue to share his collection and the research undertaken on it with the wider public.

The Book
The fifth volume of The RA Collection is the first in the series to depart from ceramic to other fields of cross-cultural art. The RA Collection of Chinese Enamelled Copper. A Collector’s Vision focuses on pieces made of enamelled copper which were produced in parallel with Chinese porcelain during the 18th and early 19th centuries. As its predecessors, this book illustrates highlights from the collection, works of art representative of the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures in the modern era. Each piece has been carefully selected by the collector, Renato de Albuquerque, ensuring that the overall collection can serve as a source for the study and furthering of knowledge in the field.

Comprising a selection of 55 pieces or groups of pieces, this boxed, hardcover book brings to light new research on the inter-cultural connections that are central to the collection. The book draws on the combined expertise of Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, Ana Moás and Ching-Fei Shih, to shed light on the collector’s choices and the complex intersections between enamelled copper and porcelain production in 18th century China. Published in a limited edition of 400 numbered copies, this work is a further supplement to what has been described as ‘the best work yet written on Chinese export porcelain’ (The Economist, November/December 2011).

The Authors
Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos is a reputed specialist of 16th to 19th century Chinese Export Porcelain, particularly interested in the first orders for the Portuguese market. She is presently the director of Museu Nacional do Azulejo and of Museu da Presidência da República, both in Lisbon. Former curator of Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga and former director of Casa-Museu Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves, both in Lisbon, and of the Instituto Português de Museus. Curator of exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, lecturer of conferences on Museology, Decorative Arts and Chinese Porcelain, author of various articles and books on Chinese Export Porcelain including the first four volumes of The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics. A Collector’s Vision. 

Ana Moás is a former Researcher at Jorge Welsh Research & Publishing, London, and a Research Collaborator at CHAM – Centre for the Humanities at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is also an active member of the Oriental Ceramic Society in London. Her work focuses on Asian export art and the reception of global material culture in Europe in the 16th to the 18th centuries, with an emphasis on ceramics and furniture. At Jorge Welsh Research and Publishing she contributed to several of their publications from 2016 to 2020. 

Ching-fei Shih is a Professor at the Graduate Institute of Art History, National Taiwan University. A specialist in East Asian ceramic history of 10th to 20th centuries CE and the artistic exchanges between East Asia and Europe during the Early Modern era, with a particular focus on the ways in which craft technology and related knowledge were transmitted between cultures. Ching-fei worked as assistant curator at the National Palace Museum (2003-2009) and taught at City University, Hong Kong (2000-2002). She conducted several projects on the Perspectives on Artistic and Cultural exchanges between Europe and East Asia, 1600-1800 and is awarded an Outstanding Young Scholar fellowship from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taipei/ 2012-2014 and 2015-2017. She was an International Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History and Science (2016, July-August), Working group, ‘The Making of a Global Knowledge Society’ (2015-19), a cooperation of the Descartes Centre (University of Utrecht) and Max Planck Institute for the History and Science, and a visiting Fellow at the Needham Research Institute (2018 August-2019 July) and Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University (2019 February-July).

The RA Collection
Renato de Albuquerque started collecting at a young age, gradually building an eclectic group of works of art. In the 1980’s he started to focus on cross-cultural works of art, including Chinese porcelain, having so far assembled over 2000 pieces, especially those made for export. Gradually his collection expanded to other fields, such as Chinese enamelled copper, as well as works of art from Africa, India, Sri Lanka and Japan, with a particular relevance for the global world of the 15th to the 18th centuries.

The collector is not only passionate about cross-cultural works of art but has also become a serious connoisseur in this field, continuously reassessing the collection as how to improve and expand it. With so few world class collections of enamel on copper in existence – exceptions include those of museums such as the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the Forbidden City in Beijing and the National Palace in Taipei – Renato de Albuquerque’s collection has now become one of the references in a field that is crucial to the understanding of the overall production of Chinese export wares. 

Limited Edition of 400 numbered copies from I to XX and from 21 to 400

Should you wish to acquire the full set (Volumes I, II, III, IV and V) please click on the following link:

The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics: A Collector’s Vision (COMPLETE 5 VOLUMES)

Download PDF preview

E-mail us to order