Kuan Ti, God of War, with Tiger, Ming Porcelain Figure, Color Plate, 1911

Printed in color in London in 1911 for Bernard Quaritch, this original antique plate shows a seated figure of Kuan Ti, god of war, holding a sword hilt in his right hand and an ingot in his left. His right foot rests on a black-striped yellow tiger, and both the tiger and the tiger head on his belt bear the character wang for power. The engraved scale armor is soft aubergine with green borders, the robe has chrysanthemum and lotus on black under green, and the pierced rock seat has a landscape sketched on the back. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period; height 16 inches (41 cm), width 7 1/4 inches (19 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. All four corners complete. Several larger brown marks.

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