Famille Noire Beaker with Pheasants and Ovoid Dragon Vase, Plate 1911

An original color plate of 1911 from Gorer and Blacker's book of Chinese ceramic art, this sheet is given over to two famille noire pieces, a beaker vase with a bulbous middle (one of a pair) and an ovoid vase with dragons. The beaker has two pheasants on rocks among peony and yulan magnolia with butterflies above. The ovoid vase carries chih-lung dragons with bifid tails around double jewels, with four kilin reserves on the shoulder. Gorer and Blacker describe both as Late Ming period and record them in the Salting Collection; beaker height 19 7/8 inches (50 cm), diameter 9 inches (23 cm); ovoid vase height 16 3/4 inches (43 cm), diameter 7 1/2 inches (19 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. All four corners complete.

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