Van Tilburg Collection
The oriental ceramic collection comprises 1699 pieces of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain dating from about 2000 BC until the early twentieth century.Van Tilburg[2] bequeathed his collection of Eastern and European ceramics, furniture, paintings, graphic works, carpets and metal ware to the University of Pretoria on 19 November 1976.Celadons are characterised by the semi-translucent green glaze, which varies in colour from a pale grey-green to a deep olive-green.There are also a number of Imperial Japanese pieces in the collection, among them a blue-and-white Arita gendi with Arabian ormolu mouldings, an early 19th-century blue-and-white Arita charger decorated with a floral still life and pomegranates, a large blue-and-white vase decorated with priests and flowers, and many polychrome pieces of Japanese porcelain, such as a number of Imari tea sets and plates and a Kakeimon plate from about 1650 decorated with eight panels and a landscape.The Van Tilburg Collection has many Swatow pots, bowls, plates and chargers representing all the different decoration styles.