Ming San Ts'ai Quadrangular Vase with River Landscape, Antique Plate, 1911

This is Plate 58 from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original 1911 color plate of Chinese porcelain showing a quadrangular yellow ground vase with a pyramidal base and chih-lung handles. Three women cross a river in a rustic boat on one side, and a seated sage reads under a bare tree on the other, in the three colors aubergine, yellow and green. Rocky mountains in cloud fill the neck and a lozenge diaper with a flower panel covers the base. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it in the Franks Collection, British Museum; height 20 3/4 inches (53 cm), width 7 5/8 inches (19 cm).

This is one of the two hundred and fifty four color plates in Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, published in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911 for Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker. The piece was photographed and the plate printed in color, so the glaze, the palette and the modeling of the original are carried over directly rather than interpreted by a draftsman. Each plate faced a page of 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.

Edgar Gorer (1872 to 1915) was a London dealer in Chinese art. He traded as S. Gorer and Son from 170 New Bond Street, opened a shop at 500 Fifth Avenue in New York, and sold to Sir William Lever, later Lord Leverhulme. He was lost on 7 May 1915 when the Lusitania was torpedoed.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom edge. Foxing over much of 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.