The  Annual William Willetts Lecture

Ancestors and Others
New insights on rare Vietnamese Ceramics at the ACM

by Heidi Tan

Friday 1 April 2005, 7.30 PM
Asian Civilisation Museum, Armeian Street

A recently acquired pottery figure TL tested to 2100 years indicates that there is much to discover about early Vietnamese ceramics.  Frequently associated with metallurgic traditions, ceramic forms of this period are usually thought to imitate ritual bronzes.  Can the same be said for figurative pottery of the Dong Son period ?

The term ‘export wares’ has created an image of stacks of barnacle-encrusted plates retrieved from shipwrecks in the minds of many. However the 15th century saw the emergence of a niche market for specialised Vietnamese ceramics in Southeast Asia. An unusual blue and white kneeling figure thought to be made for the Javanese market is one such example. What types of imagery were available to Vietnamese potters in the 15th century ? Were their sources of inspiration imported from Java, or available closer to home ? 

This work-in-progress on recent acquisitions outlines ways in which Vietnamese ceramics offer new cultural and historical insights particularly with regards to regional relations in Southeast Asia, as well as being an exciting field of material culture study.

Ms Heidi Tan, Curator-in-Charge, Southeast Asia section, Asian Civilisations Museum, studied for a Masters in Art & Archaeology at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1995. She has worked at the ACM for the past eight years and is currently in charge of the Southeast Asian curatorial unit and the Museum’s diverse Southeast Asian collections including ceramics, sculpture, textiles and performing arts. She was the co-editor and contributor to Blanc de Chine. Porcelain from Dehua. A catalogue
of the Hickley Collection, published by ACM and Landmark Books in 2002, and is the author of  ‘Remarks on the Pottery of Oc Eo’ in the book Art & Archaeology of Fu Nan, published by Orchid Press and the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society in 2003. In addition, she has contributed to the following books published by the Asian Civilisations Museum: The Chinese Collections (1997); The Asian Civilisations Museum A-Z Guide (2003).