Rouleau Vase on Unglazed Ground, The Happy Meeting of Two Friends, 1911

Printed in color in London in 1911 for Bernard Quaritch, this original antique plate shows a cylindrical rouleau vase of great rarity, its surface left unglazed except under the rim. A mountain scene shows two friends seated in a pavilion and admiring the view, and on the other side the visitor rides past on horseback with a servant holding an umbrella, near a fisherman and three boatmen. Ju-i head borders frame the neck. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Kang-he period and record it in the collection formed by Richard Bennett; height 16 3/4 inches (43 cm), diameter 7 1/4 inches (18 cm).

Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker brought out Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones in 1911 through Bernard Quaritch, the New Bond Street bookseller, in an edition of one thousand numbered copies. The two volumes carry two hundred and fifty four color plates, each a full page photographic reproduction of a single piece or group, with a tissue guard and a facing description in English and French. 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 made while large collections of Chinese porcelain were being formed in Britain and America, and the text names the collections that held many of the pieces illustrated, among them those of P. A. B. Widener, George Salting and Richard Bennett.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom edge. Scattered light foxing 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.