China without Dragons

This fully illustrated and researched catalogue commemorates an exhibition of over 200 pieces of Chinese and related ceramics collected within the members of the Oriental Ceramic Society of London. The selection spans the complete range from Neolithic to contemporary ceramics, from minor kilns in many different regions to the major kilns working for the court, and from pieces of academic interest to world-famous masterpieces. It privileges unusual and rarely seen artifacts and avoids well known, repetitive designs such as that of the dragon, which is so firmly identified with China that it has become a cliche of Chinese art. It also aims to demonstrate the vast variety of wares and the inventiveness of Asian potters well beyond the classic confines.

Text in English and Chinese.

About the Author

Regina Krahl, an expert in the Chinese production of high-quality ceramics and their export markets, has published widely in the field. She is an independent Researcher of Chinese art based in London. A former President of the Oriental Ceramic Society, she worked as Acting Curator of Chinese Ceramics at the British Museum, and as Academic Advisor and Consulting Curator for the Sir Percival David Collection.

She acted as Curator or Advisor for many international museums including the Asia Society, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, China Institute in America, and Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Cleveland Museum of Art; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Middlebury College Museum of Art; the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Museum of Asian Art, Berlin; Musée Cernuschi, Paris; and National Museum of History, Taipei. She has lectured and published widely on Chinese ceramics and other works of art. Her many publications include the catalogue raisonné, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul (3 vols, 1986, ed. John Ayers); and Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection (4 vols, 1994-2010). She co-edited Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds (2010).