Pair of Famille Verte Lanterns with Chess or Go-bang Players, Plate 1911

Printed in color in London in 1911 for Bernard Quaritch, this original antique plate shows a pair of hollow white-ground famille verte lanterns with figure panels. Each lantern has the same two panels: a mandarin playing chess or go-bang with a lady while others watch, and a lady seated by a red table as servants bring sweetmeats and a covered dish. Rice-star, swastika and ju-i borders frame the scenes. Gorer and Blacker describe them as Kang-he period and record them as from the collection formed by Richard Bennett, Esq., D.L.; height 8 5/8 inches (22 cm), diameter 6 1/2 inches (16 cm).

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones appeared in 1911 under the imprint of Bernard Quaritch, 11 Grafton Street, New Bond Street, London. Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker illustrated two hundred and fifty four pieces across two volumes, every one of them given a full page color plate printed from a photograph. Volume I, from which this sheet comes, runs from Plate 1 to Plate 135. 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 printed in color from photographs of the pieces, so the black and green grounds, the iron red and the white of the porcelain are recorded directly rather than drawn by an artist. A plate from this book reads as a record of an object rather than as a decorative picture of one.

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.