4.5.09

Tobacco leaf

Chinese, Qianlong period.

Never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world. But here I have found them in two places already: Arte Antiga and Medeira e Almeida. Apparently, the pattern was developed specifically for the Portuguese (Brazilian?) market. (There are even lame knock-offs made today).







The Met of course has it (and keeps it in storage): see some here. Decent-looking reproductions of the Met pieces can be had here.

2 comments:

chris miller said...

Wow! The only reason I would ever eat food served on these plates, would be to keep it from obstructing them.

The Chinese made these things - but they didn't collect them? How strange.

Alain Truong said...

Dear Chris, they made it for export, not for collect. But chinese used to collect antiquties from years...

A famille rose 'tobacco-leaf' oval tureen and cover Qianlong was sold at Bonhams recently : http://alaintruong.canalblog.com/archives/2009/05/20/13793287.html

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