Visit to Fitzwilliam Museum Report

Claire Blakey of the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery reports:

On Monday 25th March 2013 the Ceramics Network joined forces with the Northern Ceramic Society for a visit to an exhibition of contemporary ceramics at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Despite the very un-spring like temperatures, there were 15 participants, from as far away as York and Bath. There was a good mixture of museum professionals, collectors, academics and enthusiasts. The exhibition, China's White Gold, is visually stunning and as most of the work was made especially for it, an amazing opportunity to see what potters in Jingdezhen are producing. This varies from ware made in traditional styles to pieces which are consciously contemporary in style and execution.

It includes a section on pieces which are reproductions of antique porcelain, shown alongside pieces from the Fitzwilliam's collection as comparatives. It also showcases work by international artists working in Jingdezhen: Felicity Aylieff, Takeshi Yasuda and Caroline Cheng.

One of the star pieces is a vase (Happy and Glorious) made by students of the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute to mark Her Majesty the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. This is decorated with auspicious symbols, including a dragon, lotus flowers and cranes.

The visit was made much more informative by the insights and observations of Victoria Avery and Tao-Tao Chang of the Fitzwilliam, who very kindly organised this. Our grateful thanks to them.

We are hoping to plan a ceramics study day at the Fitzwilliam in the near future so keep an eye out for it!

Images from the exhibition shown here ©Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Enlightenment & Discovery; The Ceramic Legacy

The Northern Ceramic Society (NCS) is pleased to announce its 2013 Summer School: 
Enlightenment & Discovery; The Ceramic Legacy

This four day seminar will present a series of lectures which will touch on the Enlightenment movement and explore the ways in which discoveries, scientific progress and enlightened thinking have influenced British ceramics. 

From the early experiments and development of British ceramics, through technological progress and social change, we will look at the processes and the pioneers who made it possible.

Speakers to include:

Gaye Blake-Roberts

Nick Berthoud

Rosie Cooke

Robin Emmerson

Graham Maclaren

Nick Panes

Deborah Skinner

Sue Taylor

Pam Woolliscroft

Further speakers to be confirmed.

Click here for our Events Page and scroll to 14-18 August 2013 for full details including fees, contact email and bursaries. 

Mysterious Ming at the Museum Princessehof

Mysterious Ming is an exhibition at the Museum Princessehof which runs until 27th October 2013. Below is information about the museum. Click here for full details on our exhibitions page and scroll to 24 March.

The Museum Princessehof collection is the most important collection of Asian ceramics in the Netherlands. It is housed in three historical buildings in Leeuwarden, the capital of the province of Friesland. They served in the eighteenth century as the residence of the German princess Maria-Louise von Hessen-Kassel (1688-1765), who married Johan Willem Friso of Oranje-Nassau (1687-1711) in 1709. A beautiful period room, decorated with Oriental porcelain displayed in the contemporary fashionable style of Daniel Marot and once the original dining room of Marie-Louise, has been preserved. It was only in the twentieth century that these building were used as a museum.

The museum was opened to the public in 1917 and was meant to foster the arts and crafts traditions which united Europe and Asia. The collections displayed there were based on the broad and profuse collections of a notary public from Leeuwarden, Nanne Ottema (1874-1955) and his wife Grietje Kingma (1873-1950). Already as a young man Nanne Ottema had developed a lively interest in a broad range of collectibles, which grew to some 25,000 to 30,000 items according to his own estimate. His interests lay particularly in Friesian cultural heritage and Asian ceramics. Nanne Ottema became the museum’s first director and continued in this position until his death in 1955. His interests in Chinese ceramics lead him to begin systematic research on this subject. In 1943, his Handbook of Chinese Ceramics was published.

With his passion and his broad network of friends, dealers and collector, he had amassed at that time some 4,000 pieces of Asian ceramics. A collection of Chinese ceramics from the Ming period (1368-1644) in particular is of outstanding quality and forms the core of the collection.

In 1973 Keramiekmuseum Princessehof reopened as a museum exclusively devoted to ceramics –Asian as well as European- as the Nationale Nederlands Keramiekmuseum, the Netherlands National Museum of Ceramics.

Spode Training Day Report

A full house on Monday February 25th 2013 for our Spode Training Day! It was a great opportunity for members to meet for this specialist day. Thank you to all who took part.

The Reading Room, Stoke-on-Trent City Archives,
ready for the delegates to look at Spode papers

The event took place at two venues in Stoke-on-Trent: Stoke-on-Trent City Archives and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. Thank you to Louise Ferriday, at the archives, and Claire Blakey and Miranda Goodby, at the museum, for organising access to archive material and pots and for facilitating the day. And thank you to Pam Woolliscroft who led both sessions.

Comments from delegates after the event included:

'We wanted to say how much we enjoyed the Training Day and felt privileged that we were given the opportunity to attend and see those wonderful pattern books and handle some of the pieces. It is fascinating making that connection across time by looking at the illustrations in the pattern books and being able to hold corresponding examples. The resource disc will be very useful. Thank you for such comprehensive and interesting presentations.'

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'Pam Woolliscroft’s extensive knowledge and great enthusiasm made it all very interesting.'

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'Thanks for a fascinating day on Monday at which I certainly learned a lot.'

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'I just wanted to thank you...for the Spode training session. I am fascinated every time!'

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Delegates studying a Spode pattern book

A wide range of Spode pots at the
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery ready for study

Delegates, museum staff and speaker
(the archivist is behind the camera - thank you!)
at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

V&A Ceramics Residency

V&A Ceramics Residency – Call for Proposals

• Studio Ceramics: Early Career UK Makers
• Residency Period – 1 October 2012 – 30 March 2013

Information for applicants:
Bursary: £8,400 inclusive for six months (subject to tax and national insurance)
Deadline for applications – Midnight, Monday 1st April
Interview date – Wednesday, 24th April, V&A, South Kensington, London

The V&A is inviting applications from UK-based studio ceramicists who wish to develop their
practice in designing and making ceramics through working with the V&A’s collections and
through public engagement activities.

The Residency will be based in a purpose-built studio in the Ceramics galleries, at the V&A in
London. This is part of an exciting new programme of residencies specifically situated in the Ceramics Galleries. This Residency will take place over a six-month period from October 2013 – March 2014 in London.

The residency is open to UK-based established practitioners. It will provide a monthly bursary (taxable) and additional budget for materials and equipment. A team drawn from the Museum's staff will provide support throughout the project. We are interested in practitioners who:

• wish to work with the Museum’s resources and collections
• would welcome the opportunity to actively work on projects with the public
• are interested in presenting and interpreting their work for visitors. 

Applicants should have a track record of innovation and regular exposure of new work, and be able to demonstrate ongoing development in their practice.

The Ceramics Studio is situated in the heart of the extensive Ceramics Galleries. Further multidisciplinary residency studios are situated in the Sackler Centre for arts education at the V&A. This programme is integral to the philosophy of the V&A, helping to make the Museum's learning programmes dynamic and creative. Past Residents have gone on to achieve significant success in their professional careers, winning prizes and securing gallery representation. For more details on past residents see www.vam.ac.uk/residencies

Fitzwilliam Museum Private View for Ceramics Network...

Vicky Avery, Keeper of Applied Arts at The Fitzwilliam Museum, has kindly offered to host a private view for the Ceramics Network and the Northern Ceramic Society (NCS) of their exhibition China’s White Gold: Contemporary porcelain from Jingdezhen. 

The event will take place on:

Monday, 25 March 2013 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2.30- 4pm.

Booking is essential and numbers are limited.

The event will be a good opportunity for curators of ceramics collections and NCS members to meet.

The museum is closed to the public on Mondays and The Fitzwilliam Museum staff have generously offered to host this private view for Ceramics Network members and the NCS.

We will meet at the front of the Museum (by the gate for the modern Courtyard entrance) and be escorted in for signing in by Security. For this reason, booking is essential and numbers are limited.

Please contact Claire Blakey or Miranda Goodby for bookings: ceramics.network@stoke.gov.uk

Decorative Arts Society - call for papers

JOURNAL NO. 37 SUBMISSIONS INVITATION

Rebecca Wallis from the V & A has sent on the details of this call for papers from The Decorative Arts Society:

papers are now invited for the DAS 37th Journal, which will be a regular issue without a special theme. Articles should cover some aspect of the decorative arts from 1850 to the present day. They should present new or recent unpublished research and reflect fresh discoveries, additions to existing knowledge or reappraisals of previous studies.

DAS Journal articles are generally in the range of 3000 to 7000 words (excluding notes) accompanied by illustrations in colour and black and white.

Full guidelines on content, length and style will be sent to selected contributors. In common with most non-profit-making academic publications, we do not offer a fee although production expenses up to an agreed maximum will be given.

Short synopses to be sent to the editor by 1 February 2013
Selected contributors will be notified by 1 March 2013
Final copy with images must arrive with the editor by 1 June 2013
Journal 37 will be published in late 2013

Please send synopses to Judy Spours via email judyspours@hotmail.com

The Decorative Arts Society, PO Box 136, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 1TG