Steve Mills on fri 10 aug 01
I should think that with the list Janet's given him our Tone's going to
need a year's sabbatical!
--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
Janet Kaiser on fri 10 aug 01
I certainly hope so, Steve! Wouldn't it be good to
enjoy a chat with TC and Lady C over a beer or two?
Notice my list sends him (in theory) hot foot down your
way too? As you are not a million miles away from Mick
Casson, you could make an awesome triumvirate with two
Sheila Cs and one Mrs. Mills to keep you on the
straight and narrow!
I am still trying to contact the person who had access
to one of the biggest private teapot collections in the
UK, if not the world. Needless to say I cannot contact
direct, having no idea where (or even which) Rothchild
in question hangs out. One of the Sainsbury's dynasty
are also avid collectors, but do not know which one.
Not exactly my social circle, don't you know?
But I am really worried I left an important public
collection out... Or that some of the info is no longer
applicable. So many museums and galleries are turning
out their old style collections in favour of minimalist
exhibitions.
You know the sort: "Exhibit 1a: This is a Chinese
teapot made 300 years ago. China is a country very far
away, where they grow tea and drink it without milk or
sugar, from cups without handles called 'tea bowls'
(see exhibit 1b). Next case: This is a porcelain coffee
pot made in France (circa 1880) and where they drink
more coffee than tea. Notice it is much taller and
narrower than the tea pot? The three other items in
this room are a tea cup made by the famous Englishman,
Josiah Wedgwood; an earthenware milk jug by Bernard
Leach which was made famous by its appearance on the
Antique Roadshow in 1999 and a modern work by
artist-in-residence Joe Bloggs made from three thousand
polo mints and ten metres of masking tape. Now draw a
picture of the item you like best on your quiz sheet."
Yes, well, maybe a tad exaggerated, BUT for someone
undertaking a serious study of anything these days,
they really have to travel far, make appointments weeks
in advance and sometimes pay good money to go behind
the scenes with a curator, where a depressing number of
pieces are gathering dust in overfull storage rooms,
whilst large expensive state-of-the-art cases contain
single showy "wow" items. (Note the jealousy? One such
case would be my heart's desire, but will remain
forever quite beyond our means).
I wonder if this "minimalist" fashion in museums /
galleries is because the attention span of everyone has
reduced to about 30 seconds? Look. Saw. Click. Next
one. Click. Takes too long to download / too much to
look at/read. Click. No picture? Click. Not
interesting. Click. Links page. Click, click, click...
Yes, the internet, but magazine articles are getting to
be more and more light-weight and books are really
pretty (lots of coloured photographs) but contain less
and less real information.
Of course the one important resource I did not list was
the auction houses... Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonham's,
etc. and the many antique retailers, including markets
& fairs. But I tried hard to keep it within reason!
Janet Kaiser - just laughing at the spam mail from
china.com....
Junzhou Porcelain is one of the most famous porcelain.
It goes round that "gold has its price, but Junzhou
porcelain has it priceless"
..Now just what did they mean by that?!?
The Chapel of Art . Capel Celfyddyd
HOME OF THE INTERNATIONAL POTTERS' PATH
Criccieth LL52 0EA, GB-Wales Tel: (01766) 523570
E-mail: postbox@the-coa.org.uk
WEBSITE: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
----- Original Message -----
> I should think that with the list Janet's given him
our Tone's going to
> need a year's sabbatical!
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