Page 10 - For the Love of Porcelain

Preface

in 2008 Dr. eva Ströber changed her workplace from the Zwinger of August the Strong in Dresden to the Princessehof
museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden, once the eighteenth-century residence of the beloved maria Louise van Hessen-
Kassel, whose son would become the irst hereditary stadtholder of the Netherlands. During eva’s years at the museum
she used her knowledge and her international network to enhance the reputation of the Princessehof, both nationally
and abroad. the ming exhibition in 2011 was a great success and showed eva’s capability to combine top end research
with popular culture. Her book publications on ming ceramics and symbols displayed on Chinese porcelain add to this
achievement and are still sold worldwide in prestigious museums such as the metropolitan museum in New York and the
British museum in London.

During her stay in Leeuwarden eva built up a good friendship with Barbara Harrison (1922-2015), former director of the
Princessehof during the 1980s. Harrison had a particular interest in the martaban and Zhangzhou collection and did
extensive research on these objects. enkindled by her enthusiasm, eva became fascinated by this unique collection of
jars and dishes produced in China for the Asian market. Since the publication of Harrison’s research many excavations of
kilns and shipwrecks have been conducted, which have provided a large amount of new information on this collection.
the last period at the museum eva has taken great eforts to study this new research material and used it to extend
our knowledge on the martaban and Zhangzhou collection. this research has been updated into our database and is
currently available through our museum website.

eva has now returned to her beloved Cologne. on 28 october 2016 she will be back in Leeuwarden as the honoured
guest speaker of the symposium organised in conjunction with this Anniversary issue. i look forward to handing over the
irst copy of this special issue of Vormen uit Vuur, an edition illed with articles in line with eva’s sphere of interest by her
colleagues from the ield of Asian Art, brought together by Dr. Christiaan Jörg and her successor, eline van den Berg, mA.

i want to express my gratitude to the Vormen uit Vuur editors for enabling this edition in honour of eva’s career.
Furthermore i would like to thank the ottema-Kingma Foundation, the Van Achterbergh-Domhof Foundation and the
Friends of the Princessehof, who have generously contributed to this special edition.

Kris Callens

Director Princessehof National museum of Ceramics
Martaban,
ca. 1700-1800,
Vietnam, Princessehof
National Museum of
Ceramics, Leeuwarden,
inv. no. OKS 1961-014
(on loan from the Ottema
Kingma Foundation).

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