Very Large Famille Noire Jar and Cover with Two Pheasants, Color Plate 1911

This is Plate 4 from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original 1911 color plate of Chinese porcelain showing a very large famille noire jar and cover, the black enamel ground under a transparent green glaze. A network of branches carries peony, yulan magnolia and guelder rose in rich blue, aubergine, yellow, iron red and green, with one pheasant in flight and another standing on the rocks. The cover repeats the rocks and flowers; the authors note the knob is a later addition. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Late Ming period and record it in the Franks Collection, British Museum; height 26 1/4 inches (67 cm), diameter 15 7/8 inches (40 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. One larger brown mark.

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