"Tea, The, Cha, Tee, Te is universal - and universally appealing. For millennia it has inspired the making of exquisite objets d'art, above all the grande dame of its abundant paraphernalia - the spouted, steaming engine of hospitality, the teapot. The Artful Teapot examines the chameleonlike form of the object and how it has become not only an icon but an inventive vehicle for artistic expression. The teapot has drawn widespread attention from the world's leading designers and artists because it is what the French sculptor and installation artist, Arman, calls one of the key "fetish" objects of our time." "More than 250 teapots are reproduced in color in this collection, in which the subject's 500-year history is represented by key works from Yixing (birthplace of the teapot), Meissen, Minton, Wedgwood, and other producers, providing the historical background for the book's main focus: the creations of many of the twentieth-century's best-known painters, sculptors, and ceramists. In the accompanying text, the preeminent scholar of modern ceramics, Garth Clark, provides an analysis of these deeply appealing works that is as provocative, playful, and profound as the teapots themselves."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved