Pair of Large Kilins or Dogs of Fu, Ming Porcelain, Gorer Plate 1911

An original antique color plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, London, 1911, this sheet shows a large pair of kilins, or dogs of Fu, male and female, on biscuit stands set on green pedestals. The male rests a paw on an embroidered ball and the female has a yellow cub reaching up to her tongue; the green bodies carry iron red flames, the manes and tails are aubergine, and the character wang, king of beasts, is on each head. The pedestals have chrysanthemums on a black scroll ground. Gorer and Blacker describe them as Ming period and record them in the collection formed by Richard Bennett; height 18 1/2 inches (46 cm), width 9 1/2 inches (24 cm).

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones was issued in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, in two large quarto volumes limited to one thousand numbered copies. Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker wrote the text, which runs in English and French, and the two hundred and fifty four plates were printed in color from photographs of the pieces themselves rather than drawn by hand. This sheet is one of them. 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.

Gorer and Blacker chose the showpieces of the trade: tall black ground vases, green ground beakers, figures and animals, many of them from named private collections in Britain and America. The plates are a record of Western taste in Chinese ceramics in 1911 as much as of the objects themselves.

Even age toning. Slight wear at the top right corner.

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