Chinese Export Porcelain Qianlong Plate Famille Rose Puce Qing Dynasty Antique 18th Century

A Chinese puce-enamelled and gilt-decorated 'harbour scene' plate.
Qianlong period, c. 1750.

Decorated en camaïeu with overglaze puce enamels and gold with a harbour scene of forts, boats, mountains and trees. Floral scrolls to the border in Rococo-style, brown-edged rim.

When European navigators sailed up the Pearl River towards Canton, many small forts, erected on islands, were to be seen. It is likely that these forts were built by Chinese to protect their shores from pirates. At the end of the 18th century however, some of them were used by different Companies who found it more convenient to have warehouses near the factories, the ships being obliged to anchor at Whampoa, twelve miles downstream from Canton. These forts, which had the appearance of pleasure residences rather than of defensive buildings, were nicknamed “folly-forts” by the Europeans.

Provenance:
Formerly in a private Frysian collection, The Netherlands.

Ref:
An identical plate is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, object number: 60.80, and illustrated in La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes a Décor Occidentale (Hervouët, Francois et Nicole & Y. Bruneau, 1986), p. 23, no. 1.23.

Condition:
Some rim fritting/chipping to the brown-edged rim, small loss to the enamels.

Dimensions:
Diameter 23.2 cm, height 2.5 cm.

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Inv. No: MW236