Page 10 - Chinese Export Porcelain MARCHANT GALLERY 2015

4. Large plate, painted in iron-red and gilt with the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan with St John the Baptist leaning
forward from a kneeling position, sprinkling water over the bowed head of Jesus and holding a staff in his left hand with
a dove hovering above, all in a river scene flanked by trees and rockwork with a house in the distance, encircled by a wide
band at the rim with four cherubs amongst ribbons with prunus and a flower basket above an inscription ‘Mat. 3.16’.
10 ¾ inches, 27.3 cm diameter.
Yongzheng, 1723-1735.
• From the collection of Dr Hardouin, Nantes, western France.
• An identical dish is illustrated by Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos in The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics,
A Collector’s Vision, Volume Two, no. 358, pp. 294/5.
• A smaller plate of this design, gift of Drs. Shirley & Thomas Mueller, is illustrated by William R. Sargent in Treasures
of Chinese Export Ceramics, from the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, no. 163, p. 311, where the author
notes ‘On the rim below the depiction, a banner held by winged putti bears the inscription ‘Mat. 3.16’, referring to
the New Testament Bible-verse citation from Mathew.’; another, in the Musée Guimet, Paris, is illustrated by Michel
Beurdeley in Porcelain of the East India Companies, no. 226, p. 203.

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