CHINA SEMINAR| Eva Ströber | The Story of a Ewer in the Shape of A Crayfish

The Story of a Ewer in the Shape of A Crayfish

Speaker:  Dr. Eva Ströber (Curator Asian Ceramics, Museum Princessehof) 

Expertise:  Chinese art history, Asian ceramics

Abstract:
Kilns in Southern China produced in the 16th century a not very spectacular kind of stoneware: small dishes and boxes, little ewers, sometimes animal shaped, glazed in yellow, green and brown. A special shape we would call rather bizarre is a ewer in the shape of a crayfish. The topic of my talk will be the crayfish ewer and globalisation. Was it produced for a special market?  What were the reasons it was collected, and who were the collectors? What were the function and the meaning of this small vessel in different times and contexts? The story will cover some 400 years and very different cultures in East and West.

Date and time:  Wednesday, 15 February, 15.15 - 17.00h 

Venue:  Arsenaal building, room 014 

Language:  English

Speaker's resume:
Eva Stroeber read Chinese Studies, East Asian art history, philosophy and comparative religion in Germany and Taiwan, and received her PhD on late Qing Buddhism. After years of teaching and travelling she worked as curator for East Asian porcelain at the Porcelain Collection, Dresden, Germany. Presently she is curator for Asian ceramics at the Ceramic Museum het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.  Stroeber has written numerous articles, books and exhibition catalogues on East Asian art, some together with Lukas Kraemer. The range of publications include the catalogue of the Dresden collection La Maladie de porcelain ... East Asian Porcelain in the Collection of Augustus the Strong (Leipzig 2001), and Ostasiatika. Sammlungskataloge des Herzog Anton Ulrich Museums Braunschweig (Braunschweig 2002). Her new book Symbols on Chinese Porcelain. 10.000 x Happiness (0Stuttgart 2011) explores the hidden meanings of Chinese ceramics designs in the context of Chinese cultural history, introducing the rich and varied collection of the Princessehof Museum.

E-mail:  e.stroeber@princessehof.nl

Website:   www.princessehof.nl