China
Blue-and-white ewer with silver fittings
1403–1425
blue underglaze decoration
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Pope for The James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection, 1968/1.50

Imari ware fish plate with phoenix and hollyhock designs
Japan, Kyûshû, Arita kiln, mid-19th century
Porcelain with underglaze blue and overglaze enamel designs
Gift of the William T. and Dora G. Hunter Collection, 2002/2.13

Touring Exhibitions:

Silk Road to Clipper Ship: Trade, Changing Markets, and East Asian Ceramics

Throughout recorded history, the technical and material superiority of Chinese ceramics made them prized commodities, at home and abroad. This special exhibition illustrates the important role of foreign trade and changing domestic markets in stimulating Chinese potters—and their counterparts in Korea and Japan—to continually reinvent their repertoire of shapes and decorative techniques, and in the process illuminates fascinating episodes in cultural history. The exhibition highlights and places in historical context an important recent gift of East Asian porcelains from the late William T. Hunter and Dora G. Hunter. Originally presented at UMMA in 2005-06, the exhibition was curated by Laurie Barnes, Elizabeth B. McGraw Curator of Chinese Art at the Norton Musuem of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida.

Exhibition Dates:

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Kalamazoo, MI
September 7 – November 25, 2007

The Reeves Center at Washington & Lee University
Lexington, VA
January 12 – April 4, 2008

Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI
May 3 – August 1, 2008

For further information about UMMA touring exhibitions, please contact Katharine Derosier, Exhibitions Coordinator, by telephone at 734.615.8186 or by email at kaweiss@umich.edu.

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