Page 53 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

Detail of the Palmer dish Woodblock print of Ma Shouzhen
(馬守真; circa 1548–1604)

demi-lions rampant; with Crest, a demi-lion rampant holding a laurel middle-class community in what is now Seven Dials, Soho. The
branch (?). The helm (helmet beneath the crest) has been baronetcy died with Sir Robert in 1739, and the manor of Packington
misinterpreted by the Chinese painter as a lion’s head. The arms are passed to Mary, his only daughter (and sole heiress of the third
clearly copied from a seal or signet ring, being reproduced therefore by baronet) who married Heneage Finch, second Earl of Aylesford.
definition in reverse the way the arms were meant to be seen.
There are no other pieces known with this arms, so this dish was
This dish is one of only two famille verte armorial dishes in this very early either a single ‘special commission’ piece, or one of a small number
period enamelled in the Chinese taste with a scene of Chinese figures. of similar ones made for the family purely for display purposes (more
The other dish was made for the Juxon family at approximately the likely, given the complicated arrangements for commissioning
same date. See D.Howard, ‘Towards More Accurate Dating of Chinese porcelain to be painted in China with a special design, but ordered
Export Porcelain 1690-1760’ in The International Ceramic Fair, London, via an East India Company shipping agent based in Exchange Alley,
1991:pp.19-25, pls.3-4. Because of the lack of clarity in detail, it is not London). Larger services, including sets of plates and dishes in
certain for which of three Fisher family branches it may have been made. different sizes, and elaborate ‘pieces de forme’ (often copying
The arms of the branch at Cottesford (in Hertfordshire), and another at contemporaneous silver shapes), do not seem to have become
Hartwell Park (in Northamptonshire) both bear minor variations. However available before about the late 1730s.
the family of Fisher of Packington Magna (in Warwickshire) bears the
same arms with a ‘chevron wavy vair’ and demi-seadog crest, and was It is widely accepted that these armorial pieces were made in China’s
perhaps the most prominent branch of the family at this time. ‘kiln capital’ Jingdezhen, at much less sophisticated kilns catering for a
wider commercial market than the grand kilns manufacturing useful
Sir Clement Fisher received a knighthood from King James I, and his and display wares for the Imperial Court. Indeed, the subject matter of
son Sir Robert Fisher of Packington was created the first Baronet in the ladies revealing their wrists on this dish closely resembles poses of
1622. Remaining loyal to the Stuart cause during the Commonwealth courtesans found in woodblock prints from the late Ming and early
period, the Royalist wife of the (second baronet) Sir Clement was Qing dynasties; lending further support that these dishes were made in
celebrated for her role in helping the future King Charles II escape after kilns catering to a wider middlebrow market. See for example, a
the battle of Worcester in 1649, for which she received an extremely portrait of Cui Yingying in Xixiangji zalu, 1569, illustrated in Zhongguo
generous pension of 1000 pounds annually for life after the Restoration banhua shi tulu, vol.2, Beijing, 2012, p.21. See also a portrait of the
in 1660. Sir Clement died in 1683, being succeeded by his two Nanjing courtesan Ma Shouzhen, illustrated in Gender and History
nephews in turn. It is very likely that this dish was made for (the future) 2011, p.641.
4th baronet Sir Robert (later to succeed his brother the third baronet in
1729) on the occasion of his marriage in 1706 at Saint James’s Bonhams would like to thank Angela Howard for her great assistance
Piccadilly to a daughter of ‘Jacques Wiseman of London, gentlemen’. in compiling the genealogical content of this footnote, which will be
A Jacques Wiseman (together with his business partner Samuel included in a forthcoming revised edition of Chinese Armorial
Fortrey) was the developer of the Denmark Street estate in Camden, Porcelain, vol.3.
laid out between 1686-91, to provide terraced houses for the local

THE PALMER COLLECTION | 51