Baluster Vase with Five-Clawed Dragons on Apple Green, Gorer Plate 1911

An original antique color plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, London, 1911, this sheet shows a baluster vase on a mottled apple green ground with two five-clawed dragons among flames. One dragon is yellow with aubergine horns and spines, the other aubergine with yellow beneath, both drawn in black among filleted flames with a sacred jewel on each side. Two feng-huang in the same colors decorate the neck. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it as from the collection formed by Richard Bennett; height 17 3/8 inches (44 cm), diameter 7 7/8 inches (20 cm).

The sheet is a plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, published by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, written by the London dealer Edgar Gorer with J. F. Blacker and printed in color by a photo mechanical process. The work ran to two volumes and two hundred and fifty four plates in an edition of one thousand numbered copies. 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.

In Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones every piece or group is given a whole page to itself, so each plate is a complete image on its own, set in a wide margin, with the printed plate number as the only lettering on the sheet.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the left edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

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