Tall Famille Noire Quadrangular Vase, Four Seasons, Gorer Plate 1911

This antique color plate is Plate 12 of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, 1911. It shows a tall quadrangular famille noire vase on a pyramidal base, each side in three panels. The large panels carry the flowers of the four seasons, peony, lotus, chrysanthemum and prunus, the lotus rising from water among reeds. Small apple green panels on the neck and base hold roses, marguerites and cockscombs. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Late Ming period and record it in the Victoria and Albert Museum; height 19 7/8 inches (51 cm), width 8 inches (20 cm).

The plate comes from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, the two volume work that Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker published through Bernard Quaritch of 11 Grafton Street, New Bond Street, London, in 1911. Two hundred and fifty four full page plates were printed in color by a photo mechanical process, each one facing a page of letterpress in English and French that described the piece. The edition was limited to one thousand numbered copies. 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.

Each sheet shows a single piece or group photographed against a plain ground, at a consistent scale and format throughout the book, with the plate number printed in red below. The book's text, which faced each plate, gives the authors' description, the period they assigned and the collection the piece was in.

Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner. One larger brown mark.

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