"Muqarnas" is sponsored by The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Muqarnas" 26 contains articles on a variety of topics that span and transcend the geographic and temporal boundaries that have traditionally defined the history of Islamic art and architecture. Contributors include Robert McChesney, Mattia Guidetti, Marcus Schadl, Christian Gruber, Katia Cytryn-Silverman, Doris Abouseif, Olga Bush, Emine Fetvaci, Moya Carey, Bernard O'Kane, Hadi Maktabi, Nadia Erzini and Stephen Vernoit.

Armorial porcelains comprised the output of most European ceramics factories in the 18th and 19th Centuries in response to the large quantity of armorial porcelain services that were being imported from China bearing the coats of arms and crests of aristocratic families. Whereas these armorial services have been identified and covered for most porcelain manufactories the information relevant to their production by the two relatively short-lived Nantgarw and Swansea China Works has not been addressed as a theme until now. As an integral component of the holistic forensic appraisal of porcelain, a functional and decorative artwork manifestly part of our cultural heritage and its ongoing preservation , the recording and identification of such artefacts is material for the future establishment of a database of factory production . The Nantgarw and Swansea factories only operated for a limited period in the second decade of the 19th Century and their porcelains were much appreciated for their high quality and desirability by Georgian households. Today, examples are to be found in many museums and ceramics collections and continue to excite the interest of specialists and the general public . This text provides the first comprehensive assessment of armorial porcelains from these two factories and the methodology and procedure for the identification of unknown armorial bearings and crests is illustrated; individual bearings are discussed in detail and existing incorrect assignments in the literature are re-appraised. The difficulties in attribution of armorial heraldic achievements that are only minimally depicted are considered and directions for further studies using historical documentation are invoked. This book therefore fills a currently existing gap in the ceramics literature of the 19th Century.

Japanese Imari porcelain, with its vivid red, blue and gold palette, reached Europe in the late seventeenth century and created a sensation among collectors accustomd to the more austere palette of blue-and-white Chinese wares. Soon Imari chargers and full garnitures graced the palaces and great houses of Europe and formed significant portions of the massive collections of Asian porcelains formed by many kings and princes. When high prices and increased competition from China caused imports of Imari to slow in the mid-eignteenth century, Imari continues to exert a strong influence on both the design and palette used to create porcelains at the newly established porcelain factories both in England and on the Continent.--pg. 6.

Imari and Kakiemon wares are produced in the Arita area of Kyushu, a focus ofomestic porcelain production since the 17th century. In addition to theophisticated potting techniques and cobalt/celadon underglaze decorationearned from Korea, Japanese potters learned Chinese overglaze enamelechniques and the brilliant porcelains of Kyushu appeared almost overnight.hese porcelains were shipped through the port of Imari, and hence becamenown by that name. Wares from the Kakiemon kilns are well known for theirright yet subtle red enamel, the delicate balance between decorated andhite areas, and the painstaking care directed to every step from refininghe clay to the enamel firing.;This book provides a visual overview of theistory, techniques and distinguishing features of both Imari and Kakiemonares.

A monumental study of collective violence in the premodern world, this book analyzes all instances of rebellion and banditry recorded in 1,097 countries in China during the 277 years of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The assembled evidence constitutes the largest annual, county-level time-series on collective violence events in any part of the world, and the 630 recorded cases are used to test the major social science theories on the origins of collective violence. Using systematic data collected from local gazetteers on natural calamities, size of harvests, famine relief, physical terrain, local construction, and troop deployment, the author advances and validates a rational-choice argument that violence increased when survival in a subsistence economy became uncertain and the likelihood of punishment was low. Analyzing the administrative effectiveness and coercive capacity of the Ming state, the author also finds evidence to support a complementary structuralist explanation for increased collective violence in times of lax rulers, state insolvency, and inadequate welfare and tax policies. After an introductory chapter, the author explicates the main theoretical and methodological issues of collective violence and sketches the empirical pattern of rebellions and banditry, differentiating them by the level of threat they posed to the regime and by the sociopolitical profile of participating groups. In the next four chapters, he relates the Ming empirical configuration to four theoretical frameworks for collective violence: rational choice,which includes the issue of motive and choice—why people chose to become bandits; opportunity, in which the level of Ming collective violence is treated to variations in a regime's coercive capacity; social change, which is used to shed light on food riots, anti-tax rebellions, and conflict between employers and employees and between natives and outsiders; and class conflict, which prompts the author to assess the Marxist explanation for collective violence by investigating revolts of commoners against imperial clansmen, bondservants against masters, and tenants against landlords. The final chapter presents how the author's conclusions on why and how people became outlaws in the Ming and points the questions for future research.

This is the first comprehensive publication for thirty years on Blanc de Chine, a pure ivory-white porcelain made in the Dehua kilns of Fujian, a province of Southern China. Contains a catalogue of the important Hickley Collection in Singapore.

Oriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century, a period of improving transportation technology, expansion of intercultural contacts, and the emergence of a global economy. In eight case studies and a substantial introduction, the volume examines relationships between individuals and institutions, precursors to modern networks that engaged in forms of intercultural exchange. Addressing the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), cultural practices and ideas, the roles of ambassadors and interlopers, and the literary and artistic representation of networks, networkers, and networking, contributors discuss the effects on people previously separated by vast geographical and cultural distance. Rather than idealizing networks as inherently superior to other forms of organization, Oriental Networks also considers Enlightenment expressions of resistance to networking that inform modern skepticism toward the concept of the global network and its politics. In doing so the volume contributes to the increasingly global understanding of culture and communication. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.