Fu with a Boy, Hsi Wang Mu and Ho Hsien Ku, Antique Color Plate 1911

An original antique color plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, London, 1911, this sheet shows a group of three figures: Fu, the star god of happiness, carrying a boy on his back, between Hsi Wang Mu and Ho Hsien Ku. Fu wears green brocade slashed with yellow, with panels of lotus and cranes. Hsi Wang Mu holds two peaches in a cloth and wears peach sprays on black, and Ho Hsien Ku bears a lotus in a green robe with peach blossom. Gorer and Blacker describe the group as early Kang-he period and record it in the collection of Henry Hirsch; Fu height 9 3/4 inches (25 cm), width 4 1/2 inches (12 cm), Ho Hsien Ku height 12 5/8 inches (32 cm), width 3 5/8 inches (9 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. 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.