Porcelain Model of a Dutch Galliot with Buffalo Head Marriage Cups, 1911

Plate 186 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original 1911 color plate of a model of a Dutch galliot with sails set, shown with marriage cups imitating a buffalo head in the style of Greek rhytons. Pair of marriage cups imitating a buffalo's head in the style of the Greek rhytons; also a model of a Dutch galliot and further pieces. The grounds of the marriage cups, of soft green and aubergine, are hatched with black, which also covers the horns and the pupils, in contrast to other parts in white and the colored cord leading from one nostril round the horns. The Dutch galliot has sails set and is colored at the bottom with green, on the hull with splashes of aubergine, on the bulwarks with green surmounted with white, on the poop with yellow and green, the mast yellow and the sails white. The book gives it to the Late Ming period and records height 5 5/8 inches (14.3 cm); width 4 3/4 inches (12 cm), the book giving a size for each piece shown. In the collection of G. L. Bevan, Esq.

The plate belongs to Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, issued in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, a work in two volumes whose two hundred and fifty four color plates were printed to the highest standard the period could reach. The plates are color collotypes, a photographic process that reproduces continuous tone without a visible dot screen, which is why the glazes keep their depth on paper.

The volumes were produced as a record of pieces Gorer handled or admired, and the plates were made with unusual care for the period. A century later they survive as some of the best color images of early twentieth century taste in Chinese ceramics and hard stones.

Collectors of Chinese ceramics, of early color printing and of Edwardian book illustration all look for these plates, and they work equally well in an interior scheme as in a collection.

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

Even age toning. Foxing over much of the margin. All four corners complete.