Egg-shell Vases and Bowls with Cocks and Hens, Two Color Plates, 1911

This is a set of two original 1911 color plates, Plates 225 and 226 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, sold together as one lot. What links them: egg shell vases and bowls. Plate 225: Group of four vases, of the finest egg-shell porcelain. Decoration of exquisite design and finish in the delicate enamels of the period. A bottle-shaped vase is decorated with rocks of mottled blue and red, with marvelous peonies and a yulan magnolia rising from them, above a hen whose chicks are feeding in front of her, upon a soft green ground slightly stippled, near three cocks in brilliant plumage. A lanciform vase has rocks in shades of blue enamel, upon which is perched a pheasant in sober plumage regarding her mate, in more brilliant plumes, perched upon the sepia-shaded trunk of a flowering peach-tree. and records height 7 1/4 inches (18.4 cm); diameter 3 1/4 inches (8.3 cm), the book giving a size for each piece shown. Plate 226: Bowl, egg-shell; a second egg-shell bowl; and a further piece of flattened gourd shape. The first bowl has a black border ornamented with colored jewels, surmounted by a gilt fillet; on one face two ladies are playing chess or go-bang upon a kind of draught-board, near them a boy attendant, and on the opposite side Hua Hsien, the goddess of flowers, amongst delicate flowers finely painted. The second bowl has a delicate green lozenge border surmounting a beautiful brocade, enclosing three reserves containing flowers and fruit which cover the whole of the white ground; these two specimens embody the finest colors of the rose family. The book gives it to the All of the Yung-ching period and records height 2 9/16 inches (6.3 cm); diameter 5 1/2 inches (14 cm), the book giving a size for each piece shown. In the collection of G. R. Davies, Esq.

They were published in 1911 by Bernard Quaritch of New Bond Street, London, in Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, a work of two volumes and two hundred and fifty four color plates limited to one thousand numbered copies. 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 volumes were produced as a record of pieces Gorer handled or admired, and the plates were made with unusual care for the period. A century later they survive as some of the best color images of early twentieth century taste in Chinese ceramics and hard stones.

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 two 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 two original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split.

Even age toning throughout. Light foxing in the margins of one of the two sheets. Slight wear at the corners of both sheets. Shallow nicks along an edge of one of the two sheets.