The Porcelain Tower of Nanking, Chinese Ming Model, Antique Color Plate, 1911

Plate 191 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original 1911 color plate of a porcelain model of the famous tower at Nanking, faced with glazed faience slabs in three colors, the tower razed in 1854. Model of the famous porcelain tower at Nanking. Described as an example of the practice of facing buildings, inside and outside, with slabs or tiles of faience coated with colored glazes; the effect is given by the three colors employed. The model is very rare. The book gives it to the Ming period and records height 15 1/4 inches (38.5 cm); width 5 inches (12.5 cm). From the collection formed by Richard Bennett, Esq., D.L.

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, by Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker, was published in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911 in two volumes with two hundred and fifty four color plates, and this sheet is one of them, from Volume II. 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.

Edgar Gorer was one of the most visible dealers in Chinese art of his generation. He traded as S. Gorer and Son at 170 New Bond Street with a branch at 500 Fifth Avenue in New York, dealt chiefly in Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong porcelain, and sold to Sir William Lever. He died on 7 May 1915 when the Lusitania was torpedoed, and his body was never recovered.

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. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and bottom right corners.