Milo Fo and Kuan Yin, Chinese Kien-lung Buddhist Figures, Color Plate, 1911

Plate 229 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original 1911 color plate of a pair of large figures of the Buddhist divinities Milo Fo and Kuan Yin, three feet six inches high. Pair of large figures of Buddhist divinities (Milo Fo and Kuan Yin). Upon his head may be seen a coiffure of two black excrescences with a flat patch of hair between them. Supporting a decorated vase rising from a lotus bud, the divinity is wearing a yellow brocade coat, a blue apron, and charming ornament. The book gives it to the Kien-lung period and records height 3 feet 6 inches (105.3 cm); width 10 1/2 inches (26.7 cm).

It was published in 1911 by Bernard Quaritch of New Bond Street, London, in Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, a work of two volumes and two hundred and fifty four color plates limited to one thousand numbered copies. 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.

What gives these plates their standing is the quality of the collections they record. Pieces illustrated here passed through the great Edwardian cabinets, and several are now in museums, so the book is a photographic record of where this material sat a century ago.

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.

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

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