Ming Figure of Shou Lao with Peach and Ju-i Scepter, Color Plate, 1911

An original antique color plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, London, 1911, this sheet shows a standing figure of Shou Lao, god of longevity, on a stand, holding a peach and a ju-i scepter. The soft yellow brocade robe holds green and aubergine cloud panels enclosing the shou seal mark of longevity, and the stand has a green cracked ice border with flower rosettes. He wears a lotus leaf cap, and holes show where a real hair beard was once fitted. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it in the collection of Benjamin Altman, Esq.; height 13 1/2 inches (34 cm), width 6 inches (15 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. Several larger brown marks.

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