Ceramic Art is 

Enduring Luxury

Ceramics are one of the worlds oldest forms of cultural technology and can be traced back more than 11,000 years to Asia and the Middle East.  The remarkable durability of fired clay has enabled pottery to become perhaps the most valuable and available records of human development.  

Ceramics are also one of the most valued forms of cultural and artistic expression.  In cultures throughout the world, pottery has been employed at all social levels for the most important events in developed and developing societies -- from pious religious ceremonies to more mundane but rather important activities like eating and drinking.    

The Spice Trade

Trade within Southeast Asia has existed since the Han dynasty (25BC - 220AD).  It developed more during the dynasties of the Sui (581 - 618) and Tang (618 - 907).  Southeast Asian trade became more of a focus during the extravagant Sung dynasty (960 - 1279) due to advancements in maritime technology and marauding invasions from north China that disrupted trade with central Asia.

Manufactured goods such as silk and cotton textiles, iron implements, Porcelain and cash coins from China were exchanged for mainly native products of tropical countries.  These Southeast Asian products included plant-based goods (such as spices, herbal medicines and hardwoods), exotic rarities (like pearls, precious stones, colourful bird feathers and animal tusks) and raw materials (sulfur, animal hides, copper, tin and raw cotton).  

Of thousands of products traded, Ceramics reigns supreme today because of its remarkable ability to preserve itself in mint condition even after being submerged in the sea or buried in the soil for hundreds of years. 

Ceramics tell the story of how the peoples of Asia forged social and commercial ties with each other over the past 1,000 years.  

The Chalre Collection of 

Asian Ceramic Art

The Chalre Collection comprises a diverse range of pottery styles dating from more than 1,000 years ago.  Pieces are grouped according to type including: Celadon, Whiteware, Blue and White Porcelain, Multi-Colour Porcelain and Earthenware.  Included are a large number of shipwreck pieces dating from the Ming dynasty period (1368 to 1644).    

The Ceramics of The Chalre Collection are not only antiquities of stunning beauty and unique value, but they provide incalculably important information about human social and technological development that occurred in Asia over past millennia.    

Go to the

Chalre 

Collection

of Asian Ceramic Art