White Jade Vase, Scepter and Brush Cylinder, Three Kien-lung Plates, 1911

This is a set of three original 1911 color plates, Plates 245, 246 and 247 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, sold together as one lot. What links them: white jade: vase, sceptre and brush cylinder. Plate 245: Vase, in white jade, of extraordinary size, with a cover and plain ring handles. On one side, carved in low relief after nature, are two leafy bamboos rising from the rocks near the waves; flying above is the fêng-huang holding a ling-chih or fungus in its bill, amidst rounded cloud forms. The other side shows sides and cloud forms of fungus shape. The book gives it to the Kien-lung period and records height 16 3/4 inches (42.5 cm); width 6 1/4 inches (16 cm). In the collection of H. S. Whitaker, Esq. Plate 246: Group of two vases and a ju-i head sceptre with its original tassel. The imperial sceptre, carved in one piece of clear mutton-fat jade, is decorated on the handle with two flowering branches of the chrysanthemum rising from a root at the base, the ornament carved in high relief and openwork. The ting and cover, of oblong form, in translucent white mutton-fat jade, has a body decorated with two bands of conventional ogre fretwork enclosing the sacred pearl, separated by flat projecting ridges, the decoration repeated on the cover. The book gives it to the All Kien-lung period and records length 15 3/4 inches (40 cm); width 3 1/2 inches (9 cm), the book giving a size for each piece shown. In the collection of H. S. Whitaker, Esq. Plate 247: Brush cylinder, in white jade, undercut deeply and carved in relief and openwork. Very elaborate decoration: rocky mountains with houses, people, and animals; amongst the trees are pines and flowering peach; Mu Wang having returned from his expedition against the invading tribes. Ranked as a very fine specimen of jade. The book gives it to the Kien-lung period and records height 8 inches (20.3 cm); diameter 6 3/4 inches (17 cm). In the Wells Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum.

They were published in 1911 by Bernard Quaritch of New Bond Street, London, in Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, a work of two volumes and two hundred and fifty four color plates limited to one thousand numbered copies. 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.

The volumes were produced as a record of pieces Gorer handled or admired, and the plates were made with unusual care for the period. A century later they survive as some of the best color images of early twentieth century taste in Chinese ceramics and hard stones.

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. The three sheets are the same size and were printed by the same hand, so they hang as one group.

These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. They are three original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split.

Even age toning throughout. Handling soiling along the edges of one of the three sheets. Light foxing in the margins of all three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of two of the three sheets.