JVV 0091
Delft, 1700-1725
The plate has a small flange and is painted in polychrome with a Chinese terrace scene. Two women are sitting in a pavilion playing weiqi at a table, in the West better known as go. To the left a standing woman carries a guzheng, a Chinese zither, in its cover. The decoration is a pretty accurate imitation of a Chinese porcelain famille verte dish from the Kangxi-period which was modelled after a woodcut, presumably from the still popular xixiangji, ‘The romance of the western wing’. The plate has no foot-rim. Such plates are called pannekoekjes in Dutch, which means pancakes.
Dimensions: diameter 22,8 cm / 8.97 in.
Condition: small restoration at eight o’clock.
Similar examples
A blue and white Delftware dish with the same decoration is in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris (Lahaussois, p. 42, nr. 21). In the same collection is also a Japanese-like terrace scene from the middle of the eighteenth century (idem, p. 46, nr. 29). In the Edwin van Drecht collection of Dutch Delftware are two early eighteenth century blue and white plates with Chinese figures in a pavilion and garden (Scholten, pp. 140-141). On both plates the décor covers the entire surface.
Explanatory note
Dishes and plates with a pretty accurate imitation of narrative Chinese terrace scenes in blue and white or famille verte porcelain are rare. This plate is executed in the grand feu colours blue, yellow, green and orange, and not in the Imari colour palette which was very popular in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Of the potteries in Delft the Greek A was the largest manufacturer of Imari. Within this group oriental women in a garden or on a terrace was a favourite theme, painted over the entire surface, just like this dish.
