About this sheet
This is a set of two original 1911 color plates, Plates 234 and 244 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, sold together as one lot. What links them: hard stone groups. Plate 234: Group of three vases, carved in hard stone. The middle vase, in the form of a tree-trunk carved in blue jade, or rather in bluish ice-color jade, is decorated with leafy branches of the pomegranate bearing fruit, and with three ling-chih in high relief and openwork. Another vase, in the form of a lily, is carved in chalcedony of lavender color; when filled with moss it makes a receptacle for flowers, one bud being hollowed for the same purpose, the other solid, all rising from a stone, with a butterfly resting upon it. The book gives it to the Kien-lung period and records height 9 1/4 inches (23.5 cm); width 5 3/4 inches (14.6 cm), the book giving a size for each piece shown. In the collection of H. S. Whitaker, Esq. Plate 244: Pair of small bowls and covers, in jade; with a double-handled fluted cup or bowl of rare black jade. The bowls have a matrix of clear and transparent quality charged with maculations resembling melting snowflakes; the surface is covered with carving though the material is exceedingly thin, with borders of key pattern engraved upon the bases. The black cup is nephrite impregnated with chromite, a black crystallised form of iron, decorated on the rim with a border of two chih-lung. The book gives it to the Kien-lung period and records height 3 1/4 inches (8.2 cm); diameter 4 3/8 inches (11.2 cm), the book giving a size for each piece shown. In the collection of H. S. Whitaker, Esq.
The plates belong to Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, issued in London by Bernard Quaritch in 1911, a work in two volumes whose two hundred and fifty four color plates were printed to the highest standard the period could reach. 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.
Edgar Gorer was one of the most visible dealers in Chinese art of his generation. He traded as S. Gorer and Son at 170 New Bond Street with a branch at 500 Fifth Avenue in New York, dealt chiefly in Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong porcelain, and sold to Sir William Lever. He died on 7 May 1915 when the Lusitania was torpedoed, and his body was never recovered.
It hangs well in a bedroom or a small sitting room where a large picture would overwhelm the wall, and it rewards being hung at eye level where the detail can be read. The two 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 two original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split.
Even age toning throughout. Slight wear at the corners of both sheets. Brown marks on one of the two sheets.
This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
