A Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated plate Yongzheng 1723-1735

A Chinese porcelain Dutch-decorated plate Yongzheng 1723-1735, painted in Holland with bamboo and flowering prunus branches in thick polychrome enamels, the rim with four sprays including chrysanthemum and magnolia, the original brown line rim gilded, 22.2cm.

Provenance: the Helen Espir Collection, no. 926. Purchased from R & G McPherson, November 2008.

This unusually decorated plate appears to have reached Europe with minimal original decoration as it is difficult to see any underglaze blue design through the impasto enamels. The attribution to Holland rather than England as a centre of decoration is based on the stiffness of the design and the thickness of the enamelling, however, Helen Espir has noted the plate as "a problem".