Masterpieces of Chinese Export Porcelain from the Mottahedeh Collection in the Virginia Museum

Catalogue for the exhibition at the Virginia Museum of the collection of Mr and Mrs Mottahedeh of New York, where it was shown for the first time; The sixty-two masterpieces of Chinese export porcelain, illustrated here in full colour, have been selected from one of the finest collections of the century to give a representative view of these wares in all their different styles. The introduction which precedes them tells the story of the export of Chinese porcelain over the last two thousand years and examines the historic, economic and artistic factors contributing to its spectacular popularity in eighteenth-century Europe and, later, in America. Over the last fifty years, Mr and Mrs Mottahedeh of New York amassed a huge assembly of this ware, which in depth and variety is unprecedented.