Ming Yellow Ground Quadrangular Vase with Lotus and Cranes, Color Plate, 1911

An original color plate of 1911 from Gorer and Blacker's book of Chinese ceramic art, this sheet is given over to a quadrangular yellow ground vase with a bulging body above a pyramidal green base. Each side panel shows a flower of one of the four seasons with its birds; the side illustrated has the summer lotus with cranes flying and wading. Small sprays such as guelder rose decorate the panels of the base. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it in the Salting Collection; height 20 1/2 inches (52 cm), width 7 7/8 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. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left.

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