Ceramics Collection (NMS)

The National Museum of Slovenia has a rich collection of ceramics, including about 220 pieces of East Asian origin. Nearly two thirds of these are Chinese porcelain, while the rest are of Japanese origin. The collection includes Chinese and Japanese blue and white porcelain, Chinese porcelain colourfully painted in the famous wucai and famille rose techniques, Japanese Satsuma ceramics, numerous specimens of painted Japanese or Chinese porcelains of the Imari type, and several pieces of various Chinese porcelains from the 1950s. Most of these objects can be classified as ‘export ceramics’, manufactured for the western market, in accordance with European aesthetic tastes, and dating from between the 17th and 20th centuries. A group of small Chinese vases dating from the mid- or late 17th century constitute the oldest pieces in the collection. Notable donors of East Asian porcelain who contributed to the collection were the diplomat Baron Jožef Švegel, a patron of the arts, Viktor Smole, Baroness Mathilda Lazarini and Count Franc Jožef Hanibal Hohenwart, the first president of the Carniola Regional Museum board of curators, with his wife, Countess Margaret.