Ming Figure of Vajrapani, Guardian of the Law, Antique Plate, 1911
€ 190
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-14405-1-66
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. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete. Several larger brown marks.
About this sheet
This antique color plate is Plate 66 of Gorer and Blacker's Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, 1911. It shows a large figure of Vajrapani as guardian of the law, seated on a carved wood stand with a sword hilt in his right hand. The face and hands are in extraordinarily brilliant blue enamel, with a soft yellow undergarment and green armor, a black girdle with an aubergine mask of power, and a five-section crown with engraved lotus. The posture is that of a guardian ready to spring in defense. Gorer and Blacker describe it as Ming period and record it, with its companion, in the collection formed by Richard Bennett, Esq., D.L., formerly in a temple in Northern China; extreme height 32 inches (81 cm), greatest width 14 inches (36 cm).
The plate belongs to Chinese Porcelain and Hard Stones, London, Bernard Quaritch, 1911, the book in which the dealer Edgar Gorer and the writer J. F. Blacker illustrated and described two hundred and fifty four pieces of Chinese ceramic and glyptic art. The edition was limited to one thousand numbered copies in two large quarto volumes, with the color plates protected by tissue guards. 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 book records the Edwardian taste for Chinese porcelain, when the famille noire and famille verte wares that collectors associate with the Kangxi period were among the most sought after. R. L. Hobson of the British Museum criticized the book, and later scholarship has revised many attributions of this kind; the periods given in this listing are the authors' own, as printed in 1911.
Even age toning. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete. Several larger brown marks.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. 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.
