Large Saucer Dish with the Emperor and Dancing Girl, Famille Verte 1911

This antique color plate is Plate 132 of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, 1911. It shows a famille verte saucer dish of extraordinary size painted with the emperor watching a dancer. The center shows the emperor seated in a pavilion applauding a dancing girl accompanied by eight girl musicians with sheng, pipes, flute, bells, castanets and pipa, while others bring wine. The border has three mosaic patterns with six reserves of objects from the hundred antiques. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Kang-he period; diameter 21 1/2 inches (55 cm).

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones was issued in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, in two large quarto volumes limited to one thousand numbered copies. Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker wrote the text, which runs in English and French, and the two hundred and fifty four plates were printed in color from photographs of the pieces themselves rather than drawn by hand. This sheet is one of them. 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.

Gorer and Blacker chose the showpieces of the trade: tall black ground vases, green ground beakers, figures and animals, many of them from named private collections in Britain and America. The plates are a record of Western taste in Chinese ceramics in 1911 as much as of the objects themselves.

Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left.

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