Famille Rose Plate with Garden Scene

During the 18th century, Europeans provided an eager market for Chinese export porcelain, especially the colorful and fanciful ware known as “famille rose.” Named for a palette of opaque overglaze enamels that favored roses and pinks, famille rose porcelain ware was crafted with the same technical virtuosity as imperial porcelain but designed for Western tastes.

This fine porcelain dish is a beautiful example of famille rose, decorated with pastel enamels in a palette of purple, turquoise, and pink. The center of the plate is decorated with a calm scene of a woman and a young boy in a garden, surrounded by flowering plum branches and lingzhi fungi of immortality. The scene is bordered by an all-over purple fish roe pattern with medallions of pink florals.

From the collection of Frances and Gary Comer.