Seated Wen-chu, God of Wisdom, Ming Porcelain Figure, Plate, 1911

Plate 73 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a seated figure of Wen-chu, god of wisdom. The apple green robe is decorated with clouds enclosing ju-i heads, and a white square panel on the front shows a crane flying in clouds. A high relief girdle with flower bosses passes over the panel, and the movable hand is in white biscuit. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it in the collection of Benjamin Altman, Esq.; height 19 3/4 inches (50 cm).

The plate belongs to Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, London, Bernard Quaritch, 1911, the book in which the dealer Edgar Gorer and the writer J. F. Blacker illustrated and described two hundred and fifty four pieces of Chinese ceramic and glyptic art. The edition was limited to one thousand numbered copies in two large quarto volumes, with the color plates protected by tissue guards. 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 book records the Edwardian taste for Chinese porcelain, when the famille noire and famille verte wares that collectors associate with the Kangxi period were among the most sought after. R. L. Hobson of the British Museum criticized the book, and later scholarship has revised many attributions of this kind; the periods given in this listing are the authors' own, as printed in 1911.

Even age toning. Foxing over much of the margin. Slight wear at the top right corner. Several larger brown marks.

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