Jar and Cover on Fen-ting White Ground with Feng Huang, Plate 1911

Plate 103 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a jar and cover with delicate san ts'ai decoration on a rare white Fen-ting ground. Two feng huang perch on rocks and two swallows on a peach tree among peonies, while the back shows cranes over a pond with mandarin ducks. The shoulder panels carry the rare symbol of two doves beak to beak, and the cover has convolvulus. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Kang-he period and record it in the collection formed by Richard Bennett; height 11 inches (28 cm), diameter 8 1/4 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. 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.