Yellow Ground Quadrangular Vases with Pyramidal Bases, Ming Plate 1911

An original antique color plate from Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, London, 1911, this sheet shows a group of two quadrangular vases with pyramidal bases on a yellow ground. No. 1 shows the seasons as prunus with finches, peony with a flying pheasant, lotus with ducks and chrysanthemum with butterflies; No. 2 uses prunus, a group of flowers, brambles and the guelder rose. The handles are green chih-lung on one and aubergine rustic work on the other. Gorer and Blacker describe them as early Ming period and record them in the Salting Collection; No. 1 height 20 3/8 inches (52 cm), width 8 1/8 inches (21 cm); No. 2 height 21 inches (53 cm), width 8 3/4 inches (22 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. Slight wear at the top left corner.

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