The world's finest collections of ceramics are held in museums spread across the world.
The Getty Museum, Los Angeles
In 1984 the Getty Museum acquired an exceptional collection of Italian Renaissance maiolica (glazed painted ceramics) since the collection has grown to include Italian ceramics from across the age, the Getty Museum's collection, spanning more than four centuries of Italian ceramic art.
The objects range from an early Florentine jar with relief-blue decoration to a pair of eighteenth-century candlesticks representing mythological scenes. A selection of Italian ceramics is exhibited at The Getty Museum's central Los Angeles outpost.
Museum North Pavilion
J. Paul Getty Museum
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, California
www.getty.edu/museum/index.html
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (the V&A)
The V&A's ceramics collections encompass the entire history of fine ceramics to the present day. The collections include international contemporary ceramics, European porcelain and pottery from 1500 onwards, as well as ceramics from China, Japan and the Middle East. The collections of Italian Renaissance maiolica is particularly strong.
The museum regularly tours parts of its Italian ceramics collections internationally.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL
www.vam.ac.uk/collections/ceramics
The Gardiner Museum, Toronto
Canada's national ceramics museum is also one of the world's finest speciality museums.
A collection donated in 1984 by the museum's founders George and Helen Gardiner forms the basis of the collection, which has grown over the years and now consists of more than 3,000 pieces from Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The Gardiner Museum
111 Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Museo della Ceramica, Nove, Italy (pictured)
The elegant Palazzo De Fabris is home to Nove's institute of art for ceramics. A place of study and practice as well as exhibition.
The collection is divided chronologically and documents the history of ceramics across the Veneto, with a special emphasis on Nove, from the 1700s to the present day.
Museo della Ceramica
Palazzo De Fabris
36055 Nove, Italy
www.ceramics.it/museo.nove/index_en.html
York Art Gallery, England
The Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA) is a world-class exhibition space spread across two gallery spaces of the York Art Gallery in the city of York in England's north.
Dedicated to the collection of British studio ceramics, the collection is Britain's largest of contemporary local studio ceramics and contains the work of over 600 artists and more than 5,500 objects.
The York Museums' Trust also has an extensive collection of ceramics dating from prehistory. The collections continue to grow through gifts, bequests and purchases.
York Art Gallery
Exhibition Square
York, England
www.yorkartgallery.org.uk
www.centreofceramicart.org.uk
Image:www.ceramics.it/museo.nove/index_en.html