TWENTY-ONE CHINESE DISHES

TWENTY-ONE CHINESE DISHES
MOSTLY 18TH CENTURY

30.5cm max. (21)

WITHOUT RESERVE
本拍品不設底價。

From the Helen Espir Collection.

Comprising: a rare Chinese later French-enamelled armorial plate, decorated with a floral design and the shield for the family of de Robien, with a paper label for Jorge Welsh; a Chinese famille rose and en grisaille pseudo-armorial dish, with a paper label for Geoffrey Waters, London; a Chinese blue and white dish; a pair of Chinese dishes imitating a Chantilly porcelain design with a paper label for Geoffrey Waters; and sixteen Chinese later-enamelled dishes, one with a further paper label for Geoffrey Waters and another for Drove House Antiques, twenty of the dishes with 'HMEC' or the 'Helen Espir Collection' labels.

From the Helen Espir Collection, nos. 300, 310, 396, 458a & b, 545a & b, 609, 687, 694, 808, 898, 900, 915, 970, 975, 992, 1015, 1026 and 1035, no. 900, purchased from Jorge Welsh, December 2005.

For comparables to the de Robien armorial dish see European Decoration on Oriental Porcelain, p.153, pl.3. Also Antoine Lebel, French and Swiss Armorials on Chinese Export Porcelain of the 18th Century, p.127 for a charger from the same service. By repute, the original order of an armorial service from China was lost at sea. So a standard famille rose service was bought to replace it and the armorial added by a French enameller.