Late Ming Famille Noire Cylindrical Vase, Prunus and Blue Bird, Plate 1911

Plate 7 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a cylindrical famille noire vase with a leaf shaped symbol under the base. A prunus with an aubergine trunk spreads over the body behind pierced rocks in blue and green, with a blue bird perched on top and two more in flight. The shoulder carries a trellis border and the neck scattered flowers and butterflies. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Late Ming period and record it in the Salting Collection; height 18 inches (46 cm), diameter 7 1/4 inches (19 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.