Sung Ceramic Designs

This is one of my personal favorites and as I see it an indispensable companion for any collector of Song dynasty ceramics. The main reason is one that maybe was not that much of an issue at the time back in the late 1970s when Jan Wirgin was working with this, his doctoral thesis, namely the effort that went into selecting the items that were to be discussed.

Even today more than 30 years later nobody have seriously questioned the authenticity of any of the pieces that went into this book and I find it very refreshing to look through it. It has been reprinted in a second edition but the pictures, all black and white, did not come out as good in the later edition as in the first. This is not a very expensive book so try to find the first edition but if not, also the later are ok.