A ceramics museum is a museum wholly or largely devoted to ceramics, usually ceramic art. Its collections may also include glass and enamel, but typically concentrate on pottery, including porcelain. Most national collections are in a more general museum covering all of the arts, or just the decorative arts. However, there are a number of specialized ceramics museums, with some focusing on the ceramics of just one country, region or manufacturer. Others have international collections, which may be centered on ceramics from Europe or East Asia or have a more global emphasis.
Outstanding major ceramics collections in general museums include The Palace Museum, Beijing, with 340,000 pieces, and the National Palace Museum in Taipei city, Taiwan (25,000 pieces); both are mostly derived from the Chinese Imperial collection, and are almost entirely of pieces from China. In London, the Victoria and Albert Museum (over 75,000 pieces, mostly after 1400 CE) and British Museum (mostly before 1400 CE) have very strong international collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC (12,000, all East Asian) have perhaps the best of the many fine collections in the large city museums of the United States. The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, has more than 45,000 glass objects.
Many of the historic ceramics manufacturers have museums at or very near their factories, sometimes owned by the company, sometimes independent institutions. Among the more important ones, with large collections, covered in the articles on the concern, are: Meissen porcelain, Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory, Doccia porcelain, Royal Worcester, Wedgwood (now independent), Royal Crown Derby and Herend Porcelain.
Some other specialist ceramics museums are (number of pieces are approximate):
in Australia
National Museum of Australian Pottery, Holbrook, New South Wales – Australian domestic pottery, 1500 pieces
in Belgium
Musée de la Céramique, Andenne, Wallonia – tells you all about the famous ceramic from the city of Andenne
in Brazil
Museu A CASA, São Paulo, São Paulo.
Oficina de Cerâmica Francisco Brennand, Recife, Pernambuco. 2000 pieces
Museu Udo Knoff de Azulejaria e Cerâmica, Salvador, Bahia. 1200 pieces
in Canada
Gardiner Museum, Toronto, with 3,000 pieces.
in China
Mumingtang Ancient Porcelain Museum, Beijing
Liuwan Museum of Ancient Painted Pottery, 38,000 Chinese archaeological finds
The Terracotta Army are on display where they were discovered near Xi'an
FLICAM, near Xi'an is a museum for international contemporary ceramics
Yixing Ceramics Museum, 30,000 pieces, mainly from the Yixing area.
in the Czech Republic
Museum of Czech Porcelain, Prague
in France
Sèvres - Cité de la céramique, 50,000 pieces, 5,000 of Sèvres porcelain and contemporary ceramics
Musee de la Ceramique, Rouen, 5,000 pieces, 900 displayed, mostly local faience.
Musée nationale de la porcelaine Adrien Dubouché, Limoges, 15,000 pieces, mostly Limoges porcelain also rare pieces by Böttger
The extensive archaeological excavations at La Graufesenque, one of the major production centres of Ancient Roman pottery, are open to the public with a museum on the potteries.
Musée Départemental de la Céramique, Lezoux.
Musée de la Céramique de Desvres, Desvres.
in Germany
Zwinger Museum - the Porzellansammlung, or Porcelain Collection, at the Zwinger Museum in Dresden
Hetjens-Museum or Deutsches Keramik-Museum in Düsseldorf, 15,000 pieces
Terra-Sigillata-Museum Rheinzabern, Rheinzabern, for Ancient Roman terra sigillata ware made near the town
in Iran
The Glassware and Ceramic Museum of Iran, Tehran
in Italy
Museo della Ceramica, in the Picture Gallery, Savona,
Museo delle porcellane, in the Boboli Gardens, Florence
International Museum of Ceramics, in Faenza,
Montelupo Museum of Tuscan Ceramics, Montelupo Fiorentino
Japan
claims to have over 500 ceramics museums, public and private, including ones at Ibaraki, Bizen, Kyoto, Arita (Kyushu Ceramic Museum), and Tokyo. The Arita Porcelain Park is perhaps the world's only theme park based on ceramics.
NGK Museum, specializing in industrial ceramics
in South Korea
Gyeonggi Ceramic Museum, Gwanggju
Icheon World Ceramic Center,
in the Netherlands
Princessehof Ceramics Museum, Leeuwarden,
in Portugal
Museu de Cerâmica, Caldas da Rainha, Portuguese and other ceramics,
Museu de Cerâmica de Sacavém, Sacavém
in Russia
State Ceramics Museum, Kuskovo Palace, Moscow, 30,000 pieces, Russian, French and other ceramics from the Sheremetev collection,
The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg - includes the Museum of The Imperial Porcelain Factory and the famous Frog service made by Josiah Wedgwood for Catherine the Great.
Pottery Museum, Skopin, Ryazan Oblast, Skopin pottery
in Spain
Museu de Ceràmica, in the Museu de les Arts Aplicades, Barcelona
Museo Nacional de Cerámica y de las Artes Suntuarias González Martí, Valencia, with over 5,000 pieces, mostly produced in the region.
in Sweden
Gustavsberg Porcelin Museum (Gustavsberg, Stockholm), the history of the Gustavsberg Porcelin Factory
in Taiwan
Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum
in Thailand
Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum, Bangkok, opened 2005, 2,000 pieces of the pottery of Thailand and neighbouring countries.
in Ukraine
Pottery Museum, Novoselivka, Vinnytsia Oblast
Folk Pottery Museum, Opyshnia, Poltava Oblast
in the United Kingdom
Aberystwyth University Ceramics Collection
Coalport China Museum, mainly Coalport China
Gladstone Pottery Museum - working pottery museum
Jackfield Tile Museum
Museum of Royal Worcester, at the old Royal Worcester factory site.
Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Bloomsbury, London. 1400 pieces of classic Chinese porcelain from the 10th to 18th centuries.
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, mainly Staffordshire pottery
Spode Museum, for Spode
Wedgwood Museum
in the United States
American Museum of Ceramic Art (Pomona, California), 7,000 pieces
Museum of Ceramics (East Liverpool, Ohio), 4,000 mainly Ohio pottery
Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, New York, 8,000 pieces, including glass.
Sparta Teapot Museum, Sparta, NC. Newly opened, with 6,000 teapots