A Call to Arms: Chinese Export Porcelain
for the British and American Market
1700 – 1850
Sponsored by Credit Suisse
The 2010 loan exhibit, A Call to Arms – Chinese Export Porcelain for the British and American
Market 1700 – 1850, will showcase custom-ordered
Chinese export porcelain decorated with coats of
arms for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British
and American consumers.
For more information, read the loan exhibit articles
from past Shows:
Philadelphia Portrait Miniatures, 1760-1860 (2009) |

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The painter
of miniatures has... even more than the
painter in large... the satisfaction of
knowing
that he exerts his skill in behalf of the best
feelings of our nature... [His] delicate
and exquisitely
touched work is dependent on... seemingly
fragile materials... and [yet] will for years
to come, raise
sensations in the bosoms of those who gaze on
them, which may rival any excited by the works
of
their brethren, that are displayed in gallery
and hall... Read
article • View
PDF |
Fore & Aft – Philadelphia Collects Maritime (2008) |

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Philadelphia
owes its existence to the Schuylkill and Delaware
Rivers. Cradled between one river that led
to the abundant western frontier of Pennsylvania
and another that led to the oceans of the world,
Philadelphia was born and flourished. It developed
into the principal colonial port city and functioned
as a nexus of exchange... Read
article • View
PDF |
Phila.
Empire Furniture: Bold, Brash, & Beautiful
(2007) |
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From
the 18th century urban centers of Northern
Europe, a new-founded interest in the architecture
of the cultures of ancient Egypt, Greece, and
Rome began as early as 1750. By the late 18th
and early 19th Century in both Europe and America,
classically inspired architecture was complemented... Read
article • View
PDF |
The Schuylkill Villas (2006) |
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A villa,
by definition, is “a country estate;
the rural or suburban residence of a wealthy
person.” In Philadelphia, by the early
18th century, a prosperous merchant class had
begun to emerge, gentlemen whose wealth afforded
them a lifestyle that emulated their British
forebears... Read
article • View
PDF |
Vaulting Ambition: Gothic
Revival in Phila, 1830-1860
(2005) |
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The Gothic
style dominated the architecture of Europe
between 1100 and about 1500 A.D. It was, basically,
an architectural style, wherein the slender
masonry of the walls and the vaults was embellished
with lancet windows, moldings, paneling, tracery,
ribs, leafage, crockets, and pinnacles... Read
article • View
PDF |
Folk Art on Fire (2004) |
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Philadelphians
living in the second half of the eighteenth
century were accustomed to a life fraught with
physical dangers. Infant mortality approached
30%. Skeletal injuries carried a high rate
of amputation and, before anesthesia or antibiotics,
a 25% risk of death. Yellow fever regularly
killed hundreds of urban dwellers and drove
survivors... Read
article • View
PDF |
Patterns of Pride: Historical
Blue Staffordshire (2003) |
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One of the
most interesting categories of American antiques
is historical Staffordshire china, produced
exclusively by English potters from 1820 to
1850 in the district of Staffordshire, northwest
of London, for the American trade... Read
article • View
PDF |
This Glorious House
- Stenton (2002) |
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Stenton,
the country house of James Logan (1674-1751),
is one of the finest historic house museums in
the Philadelphia region. Administered by the
Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania since 1899, it is celebrated
for its distinguished architecture and collections. Learn
more... |
Needlework Treasures (2001) |
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The
Philadelphia Museum of Art, from its beginnings
during the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, has
become a preeminent international arts institution,
with impressive collections in a multiplicity
of media. In honor of the Museum's 125th anniversary,
the 2001 loan exhibition features rare and unusual
American and European needlework. Learn
more... |
It's About Time
(2000) |
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A
Millennium is in essence a celebration of the
passage of time, which has been calculated and
recorded in a thousand ways in as many years.
Within that period, we have come from natural
means (sun, wind, sand, and water), to marvelous
man-made mechanical devices, and back to elemental
forces. Learn more... |
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