[Book Launch] Clay & Colour: Ceramics from the Alice & Peter Tan Collection

Join us for the book launch of Clay & Colour: Ceramics from the Alice & Peter Tan Collection and its accompanying display at NUS Museum on Thursday, 24 July 2025.

This launch event marks a significant donation of ceramics and silverware by Mrs Alice Tan to NUS Museum. The focus of the book is the polychrome ceramic wares in the donation, and guests are invited to view the display which will be unveiled at the launch.

A majority of the ceramics are within the genre known as Peranakan porcelain. They were produced by Chinese kilns in the late Qing period for the export market and are characterised by their vibrant and ornate appearance, rich enamel palettes, and motifs of phoenixes, peonies, flowers and insects. The publication features three essays that discuss the emergence of Peranakan ceramics as a category of collectables, the stylistic elements of these export wares vis-a-vis those for the local Chinese market, and the place of this donation within museological studies. The accompanying display brings together a selection of these wares, offering a material lens through which to consider regional taste, ritual, and transnational production.

Now housed at NUS Museum, the collection builds on the institution’s strengths in Chinese export ceramics, and takes on a new purpose as a resource that is germane to our enquiry into the trade and consumption of Chinese export wares through the lens of the Peranakan Chinese communities.

The publication will be on sale at a special launch price during the event.