Apple Green Ground Beaker Necked Vase with Prunus, Color Plate 1911

Printed in color in London in 1911 for Bernard Quaritch, this original antique plate shows a tall apple green ground vase with a beaker neck, marked Ch'eng Hua under the base. A winter prunus, its aubergine and green branches covered with white, red and a few gold flowers, carries perched birds, while peonies and other plants spring from the base. The green ground shows shifting shades. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it in the Salting Collection; height 29 1/4 inches (74 cm), diameter 11 1/4 inches (29 cm).

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones was issued in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, in two large quarto volumes limited to one thousand numbered copies. Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker wrote the text, which runs in English and French, and the two hundred and fifty four plates were printed in color from photographs of the pieces themselves rather than drawn by hand. This sheet is one of them. 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.

Gorer and Blacker chose the showpieces of the trade: tall black ground vases, green ground beakers, figures and animals, many of them from named private collections in Britain and America. The plates are a record of Western taste in Chinese ceramics in 1911 as much as of the objects themselves.

Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and bottom right corners. One larger brown mark.

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