Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia

Chinese designed furniture and porcelain and other objects were in demand in the Americas so people in the Americas tried to reproduce those designs and it's a nice combination of Western design with Chinese influences. This is a book on a rare subject. I saw the exhibition at Winterthur, thought it was great and always kept the book in mind.

I was very excited when this book came out, then disappointed when I started looking through it. Perhaps the scope of the subject was too big, but I felt that the book was under-illustrated. I was all set to buy several copies as gifts for friends. I'm glad I bought one copy first before I did so.If you are interested in this subject, you should probably have it but I think it falls well short of its promise.

Illustrations really support the text.

I never suspected the richness (and extremely early date) of the artistic links between Asia and the Americas described in this book. The connection seems especially strong for South and Central America. I wish there were a bit more about the North American connection, although perhaps the Asian influence there didn't blossom until the time of the China trade. Written by one of the great connoisseurs of the subject --