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Illustrated catalogue of Ming Polychrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art

Margaret Medley

Section 5 of the catalogue series depicting the collection of the Percival David Collection.

"Ming polychrome enamelled wares of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have for long been familiar to students and collectors in Europe and America, but only from the nineteen-twenties onward have serious attempts been made to trace the development of style and technique and to justify attributions to the fifteenth century. The Percival David Collection contains an unsurpassed study group of Ming polychromes, which by means of comparison with others in Great Britain, America and Japan has enabled the curator to fill some of the many gaps of our knowledge, and to make some adjustments in earlier attributions. Miss Medley has provided in her introduction a thoughtful summary of the history of this important class, as far as this is possible at present, clarifying in particular the evolution from tou-ts'ai to wu-ts'ai. The Concordance of Types on pages xxvii to xxx will assist students to follow her argument and to compare related pieces." excerpt from the foreword by S. Howard Hansford, Heaf of the Foundation, January, 1966.

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