Wonderful Collection (4) Antique Chinese Export Small Rose Medallion Porcelain Plates Hand Painted Famille Rose Chinoiserie Home Decor

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This beautiful collection of four antique Chinese Export porcelain plates presents a wonderfully decorative assortment of traditional Rose Medallion / … Read more This beautiful collection of four antique Chinese Export porcelain plates presents a wonderfully decorative assortment of traditional Rose Medallion / Canton famille rose-style porcelain, celebrated for its extraordinarily detailed hand-painted decoration and vibrant palette. Displayed together, the four plates create an especially appealing grouping, with subtle variations in size, composition, and decoration giving each piece its own individual character.

Each plate is densely hand painted in the exuberant manner associated with 19th-century Chinese export wares. The surfaces are divided into elaborate shaped reserves containing alternating figural court scenes and lush arrangements of flowers, birds, butterflies, and foliage. The figural panels depict elegantly dressed Chinese men and women gathered within domestic or garden settings, their colorful robes, furnishings, and architectural details rendered on a remarkably small scale. Between these narrative scenes are richly painted botanical reserves filled with peonies and other flowering plants, traditionally associated in Chinese art with beauty, prosperity, and distinction. Birds and butterflies mingle among the blossoms, while intricate scrolling foliage and decorative borders fill nearly every remaining area of porcelain. The predominately rose pink, coral, iron red, emerald and celadon green, turquoise, blue, and gilt palette creates the wonderfully opulent appearance for which Chinese Export famille rose porcelain is so admired.

The central medallions provide another layer of decoration, incorporating colorful birds, flowers, fruit, and foliage within concentric ornamental borders. Fine gilt accents throughout catch the light and emphasize the extraordinary density of the hand-painted ornament. Rather than functioning simply as tableware, pieces of this quality have tremendous appeal today as decorative objects, particularly when arranged together on a wall, displayed on individual stands, or layered into a traditional cabinet or china collection.

The collection consists of four plates in three sizes:

One plate: approximately 4.25 inches wide, 4.25 inches deep, and 1 inch high. This example has a repaired large chip to the side. This is difficult to see from the front but is clear on the back.
One plate: approximately 5 inches wide, 5 inches deep, and 1 inch high.
Two plates: approximately 6 inches wide, 6 inches deep, and 0.75 inch high each.

The graduated sizes and individual variations in their painted decoration make the four especially attractive as a collected grouping. Their intricate figural scenes, brilliant famille rose colors, botanical imagery, and profuse ornament embody the distinctive visual language that made Chinese Export porcelain so desirable in Western interiors.

A charming and highly decorative collection with wonderful Old World character—ideal for a traditional, English Country, Chinoiserie, Grandmillennial, or layered maximalist interior, and equally appealing to collectors of antique Chinese porcelain and Asian decorative arts. See less