Famille Noire Group, Pair of Jars and Covers with a Beaker, Plate 1911

Plate 25 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a pair of famille noire jars and covers (No. 1) with a beaker (No. 2), the black ground under transparent green. The flowers of the four seasons appear on all three: one jar with peony on rocks, the other with white prunus, and the beaker with chrysanthemum, lotus, peony and prunus. The jar knobs are topped with a yellow flower. Gorer and Blacker describe them as Kang-he period and record them in the Franks Collection, British Museum; jars height 10 3/4 inches (27 cm), diameter 4 5/8 inches (12 cm); beaker height 9 1/4 inches (24 cm), diameter 5 3/8 inches (14 cm).

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones appeared in 1911 under the imprint of Bernard Quaritch, 11 Grafton Street, New Bond Street, London. Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker illustrated two hundred and fifty four pieces across two volumes, every one of them given a full page color plate printed from a photograph. Volume I, from which this sheet comes, runs from Plate 1 to Plate 135. 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.

The plates were printed in color from photographs of the pieces, so the black and green grounds, the iron red and the white of the porcelain are recorded directly rather than drawn by an artist. A plate from this book reads as a record of an object rather than as a decorative picture of one.

Even age toning. 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.