Three Seated Ming Figures, Kuan Ti and Pricket Candlestick, Gorer Plate 1911

Plate 85 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a group of three seated figures: one carrying a lotus bowl that served as a pricket candlestick, a mailed Kuan Ti, and a figure on a pedestal holding a ju-i scepter. The candlestick figure wears a green floral robe with a wide yellow belt and sits on a stand with four aubergine legs. Kuan Ti has biscuit scale armor under an apple green robe with four-clawed dragons, and the third figure's pedestal shaft is paneled in lozenge and swastika trellis. Gorer and Blacker describe all three as Ming period and record them in the collection formed by Richard Bennett; heights 9 1/2 inches (24 cm), 9 1/2 inches (24 cm) and 11 1/2 inches (29 cm), each 5 1/2 inches (14 cm) wide.

The sheet is a plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, published by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, written by the London dealer Edgar Gorer with J. F. Blacker and printed in color by a photo mechanical process. The work ran to two volumes and two hundred and fifty four plates in an edition of 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.

In Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones every piece or group is given a whole page to itself, so each plate is a complete image on its own, set in a wide margin, with the printed plate number as the only lettering on the sheet.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right corner.

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