Craig Clunas

Taking the V & A's Chinese collection as its starting point, this book shows how art objects were used by the Chinese in sumptuous burials, in temples, in the elegant mansions of the rich and the splendid setting of the Imperial Court. It contains sections on the uses of porcelain, laquer, jade, silk and precious …

This work examines the production of luxury goods for export to European, and later to American markets by the highly developed Chinese craft market in the period following the arrival of the first Portuguese in 1514. Individual chapters cover the production of silk, lacquer and furniture.