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- Acknowledgements
In many ways, Chinese blue and white porcelain is the ultimate �global artifact, as it has probably left the greatest legacy of any single art form for the world at large. Everywhere it went, it had a tremendous impact and left an indelible imprint. It was not only treasured by the emperors of China, but also avariciously collected by the sultans of the Near East and the royalty of Europe. Merchants of various countries competed for it, pirates waged sea battles for it, painters incorporated it into their paintings, poets wrote poems about its beauty, and everywhere local potters tried to imitate it.
The study of Chinese blue and white porcelain is so vast that it is impossible to discuss it in a few pages. This small publication makes no claim to be anything like a comprehensive survey. It is intended to provide some basic introductory information on Chinese blue and white porcelain for the novice and to illustrate some interesting unpublished artifacts for the specialist.
There are a great number of institutions and people to thank for their loans and participa�tion in this exhibition - the Hongkong Bank of Canada (David Bond), the Royal Ontario Museum (Patty Proctor and Peter Kaellgren), the Vancouver Museum (Paula Swart), Brian S. McElney, the Menzies family, L. Wright, Dr. C. Chan Gunn, Jean MacKay Fahrni and numerous other anonymous private collectors.
Brian S. McElney has not only generously shipped his porcelains all the way from Hong Kong, but has also written an informative article on Ming Blue and White for this publication. Special thanks also go to Paula Swart, Curator of Asian Studies at the Vancouver Museum, for assisting with the research, the writing and proofreading of the text.
We are also grateful to the following staff members for their assistance: Ann Tighe, Mary Patten, Brian Patten, Chris Russell, and John McIntosh. Also thanks must go to Bob Matheson for most of the photography, and Glenn Flanderka and Michael Chen for their assistance.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the National Museum Assistance Pro�gramme of the Department of Communications for making this large project a reality. We are also indebted to the Hongkong Bank of Canada for generously offering the services of their French translators.
Barry Till, Curator of Asian Art February, 1992.
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