Antique Color Plate of a Large Famille Verte Saucer Dish, Lotus Center, 1911

Plate 133 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a famille verte saucer dish of extraordinary size with concentric bands around a lotus medallion. A conventional lotus with ju-i heads fills the center, ringed by seeded green and ju-i bands, eight white panels of butterflies, and eight larger panels of temple vessels, with an outer band of diapers to the white rim. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Kang-he period and record it in the Salting Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum; diameter 20 3/8 inches (52 cm).

Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker brought out Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones in 1911 through Bernard Quaritch, the New Bond Street bookseller, in an edition of one thousand numbered copies. The two volumes carry two hundred and fifty four color plates, each a full page photographic reproduction of a single piece or group, with a tissue guard and a facing description in English and French. The plates are color collotypes, and the book records that it was produced and printed by the Menpes Printing and Engraving Company of London and Watford.

The plates were made while large collections of Chinese porcelain were being formed in Britain and America, and the text names the collections that held many of the pieces illustrated, among them those of P. A. B. Widener, George Salting and Richard Bennett.

Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the top right corner.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.