plate BM-Franks.869

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1723-1735 (circa)
Materials:porcelain, gold,
Technique:painted, gilded,
Subjects:mammal fruit
Dimensions:Diameter: 23 centimetres (both plates) Height: 25 millimetres (one of the pair) Height: 28 millimetres (one of the pair)

Description:
Two plates painted in gold, silver and black with a European family in a Chinese setting. The plates are lavishly painted in gold, silver and black with a European family, the man with long curly hair, dressed in a short coat and holding a cup, standing on the balustraded terrace of a Chinese-style house and looking at a child, which is held by its mother and is heading towards him. In the background, an attendant is carrying a flower vase, and both inside and outside the house are Chinese tables laden with Chinese goods, a bowl with finger citron and other fruits, a vase holding a stalk of ‘lingzhi’, Chinese books, and a tripod vessel. The scene is enclosed by a shaped border densely filled with flowers and insects, and the rim shows a border of tree shrews among grape vines enclosed between other formal borders.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:During the Yongzheng period (1723-35) Chinese figures were often depicted in such settings. The appearance of a Western family in these opulent Chinese surroundings is, however, unusual. Similarly painted dishes with Chinese figures are also in the British Museum (BM Franks. 869A). The present scene appears to be an idealistic rather than a truthful depiction of the life of European merchants in China. Although before the 1750s Westerners sometimes took their families to Canton, this was not the rule and after 1760 it was definitely forbidden. Several other plates with the same design exist, one for example in the Musees Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium ( Taipei, 1992, p. 43).