Good websites for ceramics research

Good Websites on Ceramics AHIS.335/Instructor Amy Gogarty
The web has literally exploded with material on ceramics. Not all of it is useful--much is very commercial--but many universities and museums now have outstanding access to their collections and research on-line. I have listed sites that are useful for research/links and/or presentations. This is anything but comprehensive--we will collect and expand our “bookmarks” as the class goes on.

Classical Wares (Greek, Roman)

http://www.acad.ab.ca/assets/pdf/Programs/Ceramics/ACAD_Ceramics_Newsletter_Fall_2007.pdfUniversity of Colorado at Boulder, Classics Exhibits. Interesting material on pots, uses--“wining, dining and dying in ancient Greece,” good images of pots in collection etc. http://www.colorado.edu/Classics/exhibits/GreekVases/exhibit.htm

Potsherd: Atlas of Roman Pottery. Excellent, useful collection of pages on pottery and ceramics in archaeology, principally of the Roman period (1st cent. BC - 5th cent. AD) in Britain and western Europe. http://www.potsherd.uklinux.net/index.php
Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum--fabulous archive of over 100,000 classical vases in museum collections in Europe--a project of Union Académique Internationale, the Beazley Archive (Oxford U.) and other acadmic institutions. http://www.cvaonline.org/cva/projectpages/cva1.htm

Industrial Archaeology (Early-Modern Europe to 19th c.)
Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland. Good introduction to First Nations/pre-historic and European historic wares in Maryland--scientific analysis, good images shards, descriptions of wares. http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/index.htm

SMU Archaeology Lab Ceramics Database (St. Mary’s University, Nova Scotia). Similar approach to Maryland website, but for Nova Scotia/Canadian ceramics--very detailed, many 17th/18th c. ceramic wares described http://www.smu.ca/academic/arts/anthropology/ceramics/welcome.html

The Potteries.org--Stoke on line. Good introduction to historical archaeology of important site for production of British ceramics. http://www.thepotteries.org/index.html

Contemporary Studio Ceramics
One of the interesting new sites I will include here is for the ACAD Ceramics Newsletter. It comes out several times a year and provides information on professional activities of students, alumni and faculty--it gives a real sense of what fellow Canadian ceramic artists are doing in their field--check it out!
http://www.acad.ab.ca/assets/pdf/Programs/Ceramics/ACAD_Ceramics_Newsletter_Fall_2007.pdf

University of Wales Aberystwyth, Ceramic Collection (excellent for contemporary British studio ceramics). Computer data base for archives (pottery guilds, correspondence, sales, supplies etc.), should you have the opportunity to visit! http://www.aber.ac.uk/ceramics/index.htm

Interesting Chinese conceptual artist who uses ceramics
http://www.galerieursmeile.com/nav/top/artists/works/default.htm?view_ArtistItem_OID=18
Ai Weiwei constructs sculptures from discarded doors from Ming Dynasty houses or furniture, commenting on the way in which China is eating up its past in its rush to modernize. He also works with both new and historical ceramics--check out this good selection of his work at Gallerie Meile.

Miscellaneous:
Yakimono-net. Japanese potters, supplies, tools, books etc. http://www.e-yakimono.net/index.html

Palissy Ware. Good information on this important potter, some images, links, discussion of later manifestations of this type of rustic ware, books. http://www.palissy.com/NEWhistory.html

Museums (Listed are ones with extensive searchable databases of ceramic objects)

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK--Britain’s oldest museum--fantastic ceramics collection. Luck of draw as to what is on-line, but excellent for British, Islamic ceramics--see “Web-Based Teaching Course on Islamic Ceramics”; also check “Potweb--Ceramics online.” http://ashmolean.org/

British Museum, London, UK--Go to the main site and navigate through the “Research” button, using the search tools. It takes a bit of time to get the hang of the search engine, but the British Museum does have excellent collections in addition to the new Percival David Foundation collection of Chinese ceramics (see below).
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. Fantastic collection--much of which is on-line but hard to search (poorly indexed). Best to try “browse” from Collections/On-Line Collections links.
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/

Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington DC (part of the Smithsonian complex)--Excellent collections of Asian Art in general, outstanding ceramics in particular. Excellent photos--be sure to look at Korean wares. http://www.asia.si.edu/

Gardiner Museum, Toronto--Canada’s premier museum of ceramic arts--European, Asian, Pre-Columbian and contemporary work. http://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/default_flash.aspx

Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College, Wisconsin. Excellent material on North American First Nations ceramics--well researched, illustrated. http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/index.html

Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Collections on line--excellent collection of ethnographic artifacts including ceramics from North and South America, Iron Age Europe and numerous historical photographs. http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/col/default.cfm

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City--the big one! Reasonably good database of historical ceramics in collection, but not easy to search. Excellent, useful “Time Line” helps orient you historically and geographically. http://www.metmuseum.org/

Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, England. This collection was recently folded into the British Museum as an independent entity. While we lost the charming 18th c. building in which it was housed, we gained in accessibility. Go to the British Museum site and click on "Research." An option to search the collection will come up--click on that and type in "Percival David Foundation." You might want to click "images only" to avoid a lot of text without images. Here is the website: http://www.britishmuseum.org/default.aspx The images are beautiful and the infomration useful.

This next is a personal website from Terrance Frank Lazaroff, Information and Program Officer in Canada for the Sanbao Ceramics Studio. In addition to many fascinating photographs, Terrance has a lot of information about residencies in China, and is a good contact for those wishing to travel to China for a ceramics residency.
http://clayart.ca/.
Electronic Resources (available online using your ECUAD student id)
· Groves Dictionary of Art OnLine--detailed analysis of arts of Asia, Africa, Americas, Pacific and Europe--good links to images.
· Art Full-Text--better for contemporary and “fine arts,” but can find useful articles/abstracts for over 450 periodicals.
· Art Museum Image-Gallery (AMIG)--Over 96,000 digitized images from major museums. Some areas of ceramics well represented--others less so.