Ming Black Ground Bowl with Prunus and Peach, Antique Color Plate 1911

This is Plate 22 from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original 1911 color plate of Chinese porcelain showing a black ground bowl with an olive green overglaze in place of the usual brilliant green. Descending branches of prunus and peach in transparent aubergine carry iron red flowers, two lightly gilt, above a band of yellow and green godroons. Inside, a chrysanthemum branch sits at the base under a mosaic border with six white reserves. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it in the collection of G. R. Davies; height 3 1/2 inches (9 cm), diameter 7 3/4 inches (20 cm).

The sheet is a plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, published by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, written by the London dealer Edgar Gorer with J. F. Blacker and printed in color by a photo mechanical process. The work ran to two volumes and two hundred and fifty four plates in an edition of one thousand numbered copies. 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.

In Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones every piece or group is given a whole page to itself, so each plate is a complete image on its own, set in a wide margin, with the printed plate number as the only lettering on the sheet.

Even age toning. Scattered light foxing 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.