Word: porcelain
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IRANIAN CERAMICS-Asia House, 112 East 64th. More than 100 pieces of Persian pottery and porcelain, dating from the 4th millennium B.C. into the 19th century A.D. Through...
Fellow philatelists speculated that he may have been acting for a private collector in making his record bid. Bachelor Weill (whose own hobby is collecting rare gold coins and porcelain birds) was noncommittal. "We're just going to put it on the shelf and wait for a buyer," he said...
Stingy Wages. Of all the rococo porcelain artists, none achieved finer art with his difficult and limited medium than Franz Anton Bustelli. His life story is obscure. It is not even known for sure whether he was German, Italian or Swiss by birth. One of the few firmly established details of biography is the date of his death: April 18, 1763. In observance of the bicentennial of his death, Munich's Bavarian National Museum is displaying a complete collection of his work-102 figurines...
Bustelli created all of his known works in the employ of the Elector of Bavaria, owner of a renowned porcelain factory at Nymphenburg. Although the factory got high prices for Bustelli figurines, the artist never received more than stingy wages. At his death, his worldly possessions consisted of a few articles of furniture, 228 engravings, some of his own figurines, and 31 books on chemistry...
Enduring Trace. Unlike the unnatural sugar-dolls of lesser rococo porcelain artists, Bustelli's figurines show a keen eye for the actual. Especially prized in his own time was his 16-piece series of figures from the commedia dell' arte, the endless, semi-improvised popular comedy in which stock characters mimicked Europe's manners and morals, and lack of them (see color). There was Il Dottore, the gulled pedant; Mezzetino, the capering servant; Octavio, the youthful courtier; Scaramouche, the blustering rogue. Bustelli placed them in theatrical stances on curvilinear pedestals that swept up in rococo curlicues...