By the time Britain began its long, official love affair with Chinese porcelain, the Chinese had already been producing it in some form for about a thousand years. This fact was certainly not lost on early collectors, who were attracted to the porcelains as exotic objects. Porcelain came to be associated with the consumption of such luxury goods as coffee and tea and thereby became a staple of private interior decoration and display, particularly in upwardly-mobile country homes. Pierson (Chinese ceramics, U. of London), who is also curator of the university's collection, closely describes how every step up in demand became important to both British/Chinese trade and the ways Britain perceived Chinese culture. She also describes how porcelain became considered works of art worthy of public display in museums in the twentieth century, leading to comprehensive collections and rigorous scholarly work. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)