Quadrangular Famille Noire Vase, Enamel on Biscuit, Antique Plate 1911

Plate 13 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a quadrangular famille noire vase on a pyramidal base, enameled on the biscuit, with handles. Prunus, peony, yulan magnolia and hibiscus rise from rocks in white, aubergine, yellow and green under a thin wash of green. The neck panel and the four base panels have a seeded green ground, each base panel reserving a ju-i head. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it in the collection formed by Richard Bennett; height 21 3/4 inches (55 cm), width 8 inches (20 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. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

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