A CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE SMALL ARMORIAL PLATE

KANGXI 1662-1722

Made for the Dutch market, painted with a single pheasant perched on rocks beneath large peony blooms, the rim with the arms of Pelgrans encircled by alternating shell motifs and foliate roundels, the base with a twin fish mark, 20.8cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Anthony Du Boulay, purchased from Bluett's in 1972.

Cf. D Howard and S Ayers, China for the West, p.82, where another plate of this design is illustrated, and where it is noted this service was made for Jacob Pelgrans, a Director of the Dutch East India Company who lived in Bengal from 1702-8, and died in Batavia in 1713.

Exhibited: The Oriental Ceramic Society, The World of Blue and White, 2003, no.40.