Pair of Beakers and a Bowl with the Horses of Mu Wang, Gorer 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 pair of beakers and a matching bowl on a dark green rolling wave ground. White crested waves break over rocks around the galloping horses of the Emperor Mu Wang, with prunus flowers, symbols and fire forms scattered over the ground and flying cranes on the raised middle band of the beakers. The bowl repeats the design inside and out. Gorer and Blacker describe them as early Kang-he period and record them in the collection of G. L. Bevan; beakers height 14 3/4 inches (38 cm), diameter 7 1/4 inches (19 cm); bowl height 3 3/4 inches (10 cm), diameter 8 1/4 inches (21 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. Slight wear at the top left corner. One larger brown mark.

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