Copeland, Robert — Parian Copeland's Statuary Porcelain

Book Very Good Dust Jacket Included 1st Edition Antique Collectors Club English text.; Hardcover (with dust jacket).; 22.5 x 28 cm.; 1.5 kg.; 277 pages with black and white and a few colour illustrations.; Used with minor signs of wear on the exterior and interior. The dust jacket shows minor edge wear, scuffs and scratches on the front cover, spine and back cover. Interior with minor signs of wear.; Parian a high quality unglazed porcelain - was developed in the early 1840s by Copeland & Garrett, who were the first to exhibit it in 1845. Its purpose was to provide small sculptures for the public at a time when full size marble statues were gracing the homes of wealthy people. Examples exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition stimulated the demand initiated by the Art Union of London in 1845 and promoted further in the next forty years by other Art Unions. The debate in the Staffordshire Advertiser columns as to which firm was the first to introduce parian is examined and commented upon. The manufacturing processes of mould- making and the casting of the figures is described and illustrated and the importance of the Art Unions and international exhibitions in the promotion of parian is explained. The book includes a comprehensive catalogue of over four hundred of Copeland's statuettes, groups and portrait busts. Information about each subject, both real and literary, is covered fully, and details include the making costs and selling prices over forty years. Short biographies of the sculptors are included and a special section describes the background history of Assyria which led to a group of unusual sculptures derived from originals in the British Museum.