Dark Green Jade Vase, Bowl and Buddha Bowl, Three Kang-he Plates, 1911

This is a set of three original 1911 color plates, Plates 235, 236 and 237 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, sold together as one lot. What links them: dark green jade vessels. Plate 235: Large vase, of flattened quadrangular form, of dark green jade. Carved in high relief with arabesques of flowers, foliage, and symbols; each side is a panel, and from a vertical central stem, surmounted by a flower in the two large sides, arise lateral branches which support the eight Buddhist emblems. The book gives it to the Kang-he period and records height 15 7/8 inches (40.3 cm); width 8 1/2 inches (21.7 cm). In the collection of H. S. Whitaker, Esq. Plate 236: Large, round, shallow bowl, of flattened form, in dark green jade. Decorated inside as well as outside; the whole of the outside carved in arabesques in a wide band of chrysanthemums, the stems and leaves showing high relief ornament with much undercutting. Supported upon six short feet without ornament. The book gives it to the Kang-he period and records height 2 1/2 inches (6.3 cm); diameter 9 1/2 inches (24.2 cm). In the collection of H. S. Whitaker, Esq. Plate 237: Bowl, of green jade, with dark veins and blackish spots. Eight medallions of Buddha in identical attitudes, carved in low relief and separated by arabesques of conventional foliage; the base decorated with eight Buddhist symbols: the wheel of the law, double fish, umbrella, etc. The book gives it to the Kang-he period and records height 6 3/8 inches (16.2 cm); diameter 7 5/8 inches (19.3 cm). In the collection of H. S. Whitaker, Esq.

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, by Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker, was published in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911 in two volumes with two hundred and fifty four color plates, and these sheets are among them, from Volume II. The plates are color collotypes, a photographic process that reproduces continuous tone without a visible dot screen, which is why the glazes keep their depth on paper.

The book appeared at the height of the Edwardian passion for Chinese porcelain, when English and American collections were being formed at speed and a dealer's catalog could shape taste. R. L. Hobson of the British Museum attacked Gorer's attributions in print when the work appeared, and later scholarship has revised many attributions of this kind, which is part of what makes the volumes interesting to read now.

Collectors of Chinese ceramics, of early color printing and of Edwardian book illustration all look for these plates, and they work equally well in an interior scheme as in a collection. The three sheets are the same size and were printed by the same hand, so they hang as one group.

These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. They are three original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split.

Even age toning throughout. Light foxing in the margins of all three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of all three sheets.