Pair of Imperial Yellow Square Bottles, Four Seasons, Kang-he, Plate 1911

This antique color plate is Plate 54 of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, 1911. It shows a pair of vases or square bottles on a soft iridescent imperial yellow ground. Each framed side shows one season in green and aubergine enamels or white: tree peony for spring, lotus and sweet flag for summer, chrysanthemum for autumn and flowering plum for winter, with rose sprays on the neck. The authors note this yellow as the imperial color of the Ch'ing dynasty. Gorer and Blacker describe them as Kang-he period and record them as from the collection formed by Richard Bennett; height 19 1/2 inches (50 cm), diameter 5 1/2 inches (14 cm).

The plate comes from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, the two volume work that Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker published through Bernard Quaritch of 11 Grafton Street, New Bond Street, London, in 1911. Two hundred and fifty four full page plates were printed in color by a photo mechanical process, each one facing a page of letterpress in English and French that described the piece. The edition was limited to 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.

Each sheet shows a single piece or group photographed against a plain ground, at a consistent scale and format throughout the book, with the plate number printed in red below. The book's text, which faced each plate, gives the authors' description, the period they assigned and the collection the piece was in.

Even age toning. A few small foxing spots 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.