Porcelain - Highlights of Auctioned Chinese Antiques Series

'Highlights of Auctioned Chinese Antiques' comprises five volumes, namely,'Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Horn Carvings', 'Porcelain', 'Jadeware', 'Bronzeware' and 'Ancient Furniture'. Each volume contains around 150 representative items put up for auction from 1995 to 2010 at auctions held by dozens of auction companies fromcities like New York, Nagel, London, Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai.Tianjin, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu and Jinan. The selection of the items is based on the style, texture, form, decorative pattern, workmanship, function, culturalimplication and value of the antiques in question, including some items which have not yet been transacted.
The pottery and porcelain auction market of China has been brisk and prosperous over the past ten years due to both the social background in general and the features of pottery and porcelain in particular. As a quintessence of China, porcelain, brittle but not easy to rot, has been a part of Chinese culture for several thousand years. Its exquisite plastic art and jade-like glaze are much appreciated, and decorative patterns, calligraphy and paintings on it make it even more elegant and beautiful. Unlike pure arts and crafts such as calligraphy and paintings, which are solely owned and appreciated by the 'refined and sophisticated' few, porcelain is mostly daily utensil for the general public. Therefore, most people start collection with porcelain. According to a statistics, porcelain collectors constitute the overwhelming majority of the nearly 100 million artware collectors, resulting in a huge and brisk porcelain auction market.