Kang-he Blue and White Beakers, Pair of Antique Color Plates, 1911

This is a set of two original 1911 color plates, Plates 143 and 144 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, sold together as one lot. What links them: blue and white beakers. Plate 143: Beaker, large. A brilliant blue ground upon which the design is reserved in white under the glaze; the varying tone of the blue is remarkable, the words "marbled" and "agatise" scarcely expressing the effect produced. The body is covered with flowers and foliage, and a border of white zigzags each enclosing a demi-flower. The book gives it to the Kang-he period and records height 20 inches (51 cm); diameter 9 inches (23 cm). In the collection of Sir William H. Lever, Bart. Plate 144: Pair of large beakers. Decorated with various borders in fine cobalt upon a white ground: from the top rim, a border of zigzags and semi-flowers reserved in white, then two forms of ju-i head framed with white fillets in a continuous zone. The book gives it to the Kang-he period and records height 17 3/8 inches (45 cm); diameter 8 5/8 inches (22 cm). In the collection of J. B. Lee, Esq.

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, by Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker, was published in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911 in two volumes with two hundred and fifty four color plates, and these sheets are among them, from Volume II. The plates are color collotypes, a photographic process that reproduces continuous tone without a visible dot screen, which is why the glazes keep their depth on paper.

The book appeared at the height of the Edwardian passion for Chinese porcelain, when English and American collections were being formed at speed and a dealer's catalog could shape taste. R. L. Hobson of the British Museum attacked Gorer's attributions in print when the work appeared, and later scholarship has revised many attributions of this kind, which is part of what makes the volumes interesting to read now.

Framed simply in a dark wood molding with a generous cream mount, it holds a wall on its own and sits comfortably beside furniture of almost any period. The two sheets are the same size and were printed by the same hand, so they hang as one group.

These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. They are two original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split.

Light even age toning throughout. Light foxing in the margins of both sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the two sheets.