Group of Five Ming Dogs of Fu, Lions or Kilins, Gorer Plate 1911

This antique color plate is Plate 102 of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, 1911. It shows a group of five Chinese lions or dogs of Fu, numbered 1 to 5: a set of three on biscuit pedestals and a pair on pierced green stands. The set of three have green breasts, one ridden by a boy in a yellow coat; the pair have white breasts and stand on pierced green stands with yellow corner posts. A brocaded ball, an aubergine whelp and lotus stems vary the forms. Gorer and Blacker describe them as Ming period and record them in the collection formed by Richard Bennett; No. 1 height 5 7/8 inches (15 cm), width 6 5/8 inches (17 cm); No. 2 5 7/8 by 6 1/4 inches (15 by 16 cm); No. 3 7 by 5 1/4 inches (18 by 13 cm); No. 4 6 1/4 by 5 3/8 inches (16 by 13 cm); No. 5 6 1/8 by 4 7/8 inches (16 by 12 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. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right and top right corners. Several larger brown marks.

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