Kuan Yin Enthroned with Attendants and Pair of Shou Lao, Gorer Plate 1911

Plate 91 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a figure of Kuan Yin seated on lotus petals with a child and two attendants, flanked by a pair of figures of Shou Lao, god of longevity. Kuan Yin's apple green robe is covered with shou characters and her hexagonal stand shows a carp leaping from waves. The two Shou Lao differ mainly in color, one in aubergine with double peach branches and the other in apple green with white cranes. Gorer and Blacker describe the Shou Lao pair as Ming period; Kuan Yin height 16 1/2 inches (42 cm), width 7 inches (18 cm), Shou Lao height 14 1/2 inches (37 cm), width 4 1/2 inches (12 cm).

Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker brought out Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones in 1911 through Bernard Quaritch, the New Bond Street bookseller, in an edition of one thousand numbered copies. The two volumes carry two hundred and fifty four color plates, each a full page photographic reproduction of a single piece or group, with a tissue guard and a facing description in English and French. 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 made while large collections of Chinese porcelain were being formed in Britain and America, and the text names the collections that held many of the pieces illustrated, among them those of P. A. B. Widener, George Salting and Richard Bennett.

Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete. One larger brown mark.

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