Page 13 - Kraak Porcelain, Jorge Welsh

Foreword

This year we have chosen kraak porcelain as the theme of our exhibition and catalogue.
The exhibition will take place in two stages, first in our London gallery and then in our
Lisbon one.

As usual our exhibitions are the product of years of collecting and putting aside pieces,
until we build a group, su ciently large and interesting, to justify an exhibition and
the publishing of a catalogue such as this one. Aside from building a coherent group
of pieces, representative of its kind, it is the perfect excuse to embark on research and
highlight new information that has come about in recent years. In this case it is also an
opportunity to focus on the aspect of kraak porcelain that we feel is the most fascinating
of its characteristics, and is not always recognized, the quality of the painting, that can be
found on the high end examples of kraak porcelain.

Kraak porcelain has been studied and written about by some of the most prominent
academics of this field. Maura Rinaldi was the author of the excellent book Kraak Porcelain.
A Moment in the History of Trade. At the time, , it was the most up to date work on the
subject and still a must, as a reference book. But the subject has also deservedly been
written about by such scholars as Christiaan Jörg, Maria Antonia Pinto de Matos, Regina
Krahl, Daisy Lion-Golschmidt, Clarence Shangraw, Edward Von der Porten and Brian
McElney amongst others. Theirs has been a major contribution to the understanding of
kraak porcelain and an invaluable source of information for anyone that embarks on the
study of this group of porcelains.

In recent years there have been a series of archaeological discoveries including a
number of kilns that were active in the Ming dynasty. Also, research on kraak porcelain
has produced new information. Therefore this catalogue will put forward some new ideas
and suggestions, including some about the dating of di erent types of kraak porcelain.

The exhibition Kraak Porcelain, The Rise of Global Trade in the late th and early th
Centuries comprises over pieces of which kraak porcelain pieces and Japanese,
Safavid, Del , and Nevers examples are discussed and illustrated in this catalogue.

Kraak porcelain was produced in large quantities during the th and th century,
with varying levels of quality, from the high end exceptional pieces to others of
acceptable but average quality and, at the lower end, fairly coarse pieces. The choice of
the pieces that are included in this catalogue was made with a specific criteria in mind,
in order to achieve some sort of representation of out of ordinary examples as well as of