Imperial Palace Baluster Pair, Underglaze Blue Landscape, Kien-lung, 1911
€ 265
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1911
Mapmaker / artist
Edgar Gorer and J. F. Blacker
Publisher
Bernard Quaritch, 11 Grafton Street, New Bond Street, London
Coloring
Printed color
Sheet size
31 × 24 cm (12.2 × 9.4 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14405-217
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.
About this sheet
Plate 217 from Volume II of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, an original 1911 color plate of a pair of baluster vases from the Imperial Palace, trees and mountains in underglaze blue with green enameled rolling waves. Pair of baluster vases. Painted with a continuous landscape; the trees, rocks, mountains, etc., in underglaze blue, the rolling waves enameled in delicate green outlined in black and crested in white. Amongst the trees are numerous pavilions in white and black enamel, and a border of blue palmettes. The book gives it to the Kien-lung period and records height 13 3/4 inches (35 cm); diameter 7 inches (17.6 cm). From the Imperial Palace.
It was 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.
What gives these plates their standing is the quality of the collections they record. Pieces illustrated here passed through the great Edwardian cabinets, and several are now in museums, so the book is a photographic record of where this material sat a century ago.
Hung as a group with other plates from the same work, it builds into a decorative scheme with a common palette and a common hand.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction.
Even age toning. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.
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.
