A plate, a serving dish, a bowl will shine a new light on a meal.
Setting the table for a holiday party is like setting the stage for a play.
Jugs, dishes, vases carry a slice of human history.
In his introduction to The Pot Book (Phaidon Press, Fall 2011), Edmund de Waal, a potter himself, reminds us on ceramic art that 'clay is one of the very first materials invented by man'. It combines decorative and utilitarian and has 'been moulded, thrown, glazed, decorated and fired for over 30,000 years in order to preserve and transport food and water', wine and olive oil too.
The Pot Book offers 300 examples from all continents and across centuries.
Amongst them is Madama de Pompadour (1990) by Cyndy Sherman better known as a performance artist than a ceramist. I discovered that she was born in Glen Ridge, a town over from where I live.
Propaganda is represented with Soviet Union Ornamental Plate, issued on fifth anniversary of the Red Army (1923, below by Mikhail Adamovich.
Thanks to Choson jar (below, 1600-1800) from Korea, I learned that Choson Dynasty was present in Korea from 1392 to 1910.
The author informs us that 'bold, freely painted scaly dragon hurtling round the surface of a pot in pursuit of a flaming pearl was a popular motif for porcelain designs in Korea in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was believed that the dragon held or chased the sun, but over time the image of the sun was replaced by a silvery ball or flaming pearl'.
Third illustration is more contemporary art piece than utilitarian.
Gul (2007) by Heidi Bjorgan (born 1970) in Trondheim (Norway) combines porcelain, bark and bicycle tire inner tube.
Description follows: 'The shiny yellow glazed ceramic bottle has been wrapped in a piece of birch bark and tied up with the inner tube of a bicycle tire. Heidi Bjorgan considers herself a kind of crafts charity worker in that she gives trash a second chance. She collects abandoned objects and rehabilitates them by making moulds from them…'
I could have featured Maya bowls from 6th century, Etruscan jugs from 7th century BC, Song bowl from 11th century Northern China and many more.
I did not want to spoil the pleasure you will have taking in all the riches The Pot Book contains.
A coffee table book worth reading
(* Images and Excerpts from The Pot Book– Phaidon Press, Fall 2011- by Edmund de Waal with Claudia Clare– reproduced with permission, all rights reserved)