Vajrapani as Protector of Buddha, Ming Temple Figure, Antique Plate, 1911

Plate 67 of the 1911 book Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original color plate of Chinese porcelain, illustrates a large figure of Vajrapani as protector of Buddha, with a parrot, on a carved wood stand. The face is an unusual aubergine and the hands a lighter aubergine; the colors reverse those of the companion, with a green undergarment and soft yellow armor, and the biscuit masks look downward. The pose is calmer than that of the guardian of the law. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it, with its companion, in the collection formed by Richard Bennett, Esq., D.L., formerly in a temple in Northern China; extreme height 32 inches (81 cm), greatest width 14 inches (36 cm).

Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones appeared in 1911 under the imprint of Bernard Quaritch, 11 Grafton Street, New Bond Street, London. Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker illustrated two hundred and fifty four pieces across two volumes, every one of them given a full page color plate printed from a photograph. Volume I, from which this sheet comes, runs from Plate 1 to Plate 135. 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 printed in color from photographs of the pieces, so the black and green grounds, the iron red and the white of the porcelain are recorded directly rather than drawn by an artist. A plate from this book reads as a record of an object rather than as a decorative picture of one.

Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

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