Famille Verte Bottle with Lions and a Late Ming Baluster Vase, Plate 1911

Printed in color in London in 1911 for Bernard Quaritch, this original antique plate shows one of a pair of long-necked bottles with lions and brocaded balls, and a stippled green baluster vase. The white bottle is painted with lions and red lionesses playing with embroidered balls trailing ribbons. The baluster vase has a seeded green brocade of chrysanthemums with ju-i shaped reserves of sacred objects and a zone of palmettes in green and an over-fired brown. Gorer and Blacker describe the bottle as Kang-he period and the baluster vase as Late Ming period, recording the vase in the Salting Collection; bottle height 17 1/8 inches (44 cm), diameter 8 1/2 inches (22 cm), vase height 15 7/8 inches (40 cm), diameter 8 3/8 inches (21 cm).

The plate comes from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, the two volume work that Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker published through Bernard Quaritch of 11 Grafton Street, New Bond Street, London, in 1911. Two hundred and fifty four full page plates were printed in color by a photo mechanical process, each one facing a page of letterpress in English and French that described the piece. The edition was limited to 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.

Each sheet shows a single piece or group photographed against a plain ground, at a consistent scale and format throughout the book, with the plate number printed in red below. The book's text, which faced each plate, gives the authors' description, the period they assigned and the collection the piece was in.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the left edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top left corners. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom and left. Several larger brown marks.

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