D2431. Pair of Polychrome Chinoiserie Plaques

Both painted in shades of blue, iron-red, yellow, green and manganese with a Chinese figure in the center, standing on a bridge crossing a water with ducks, surrounded by a landscape with rock work and lavish flowering branches, holding a small table with a bouquet in a vase, on the right a man with hat, leaning on a table with a bouquet in a vase, pointing towards the figure with the table, the self-frame molded with rococo c-volute scrollwork and rocaillerie, pierced at the top with a hole for suspension.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 34 cm. (13.4 in.)
Width: 36.5 cm. (14.8 in.)

PROVENANCE
French Private Collection, Paris, 2023 (Provenance+)

NOTE
Ornamental plaques with a scalloped and foliated edge are characteristic features of Delftware production. Before this innovation, previous plaques from the earlier eighteenth century were made with a plain wooden edge. Like the present example, Delftware plaques generally paired chinoiserie scenes with flower bundles as the decorative scheme. The richness of design, and use of colors on this particular plaque make it an exemplary object from this period of Delftware production. The Long Eliza theme, taken from Chinese famille verte porcelains, was a well known subject from the 1710s that features a beautiful female Asian figure and children in a lush landscape. The Delftware objects mirrored the idyllic and cheerful vision of Asia.

SIMILAR EXAMPLE
A similarly decorated plaque, lacking the bridge and the table, was sold at Sotheby’s in the Frits Philips Collection Sale in December 2006 as lot 106.