Page 8 - Chinese Export Porcelain MARCHANT GALLERY 2015

3. Large armorial dish, painted in black, white and green enamels and iron-red, heightened in gilt, with the arms of
Thomas Pitt of Blandford and of his wife Lady Frances Ridgeway in pretence above a banderol inscribed with the
motto AMITIE with the coronet repeated four times on the rim above the crests, all between gilt flower sprays of
chrysanthemum and camellia.
The base with a lingzhi mark within a double ring in underglaze blue.
13 ⅝ inches, 34.6 cm diameter.
Late Kangxi, circa 1720.
• Formerly in the personal collection of Khalil Rizk with label K. R. Rizk Collection, CEPA 2.
• Formerly in the collection of Phillip B. Cooke with label collection number 110.
• Sold by Heirloom & Howard Ltd, 3rd December 1982.
• Exhibited in the San Francisco Fall Antique Show, 1995.
• A plate from this service is illustrated by David Howard & John Ayers in China for the West, Volume two, no. 405, p.
406, where the author notes ‘In 1719, Thomas Pitt, son of a former Governor of Fort St George, Madras, was created
Baron Londonderry. Two years earlier he had married Frances Ridgeway, heiress of the Earl of Londonderry, who had
died in 1714. Thomas Pitt was raised to a new earldom of Londonderry in 1726 and died as Captain General of The
Leeward Islands three years later. His nephew and great nephew were to become famous prime ministers. Thus this
service cannot have been made before the autumn of 1720, which in all probability is the correct date – immediately
prior to the introduction of the opaque famille rose enamels which were then being developed in China.’
• A slightly smaller dish and a bowl from this service are illustrated by Conor Mahony & Khalil Rizk in The Chinese
Porcelain Company exhibition of Chinese Glass Painting & Export Porcelain, 1996, no. 42/3, pp. 74/5; another,
formerly in the Comte de Bondy Collection, Paris, is illustrated by Michel Beurdeley in Porcelain of the East India
Companies, no. 177, p. 191.
• Until 1720, three styles were in use for armorial porcelain: underglaze blue, famille verte, and Chinese imari. There
now began a period of considerable development in Chinese techniques. Most of the palette here is famille verte; the
thick, rich black is typical of much of the later decoration with these enamels.

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