Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum: Revised Edition
About this ebook
oriental porcelain embellished with Parisian gilt bronze or silver is
comprehensively illustrated in this revised catalogue.
The European practice of mounting
exotic objects such as oriental porcelain dates from the Middle Ages and found
its height of expression during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when
Chinese and Japanese porcelains reached the West in considerable quantities. To
meet the growing taste for such objects in fashionable Parisian society, marchands-merciers—guild members who
combined the functions of the modern interior decorator, antique dealer, and
picture dealer—devised ingenious settings in silver and gilt bronze for
oriental porcelains, adapting their exotic character to the French interiors of
the period. With the publication of this catalogue, the beauty and rarity with
which buyers of these pieces were so enamored is vividly brought to life.
