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Hello everyone I have this really beautiful plate. It has ladies in the centre and dragons surrounding around the edges. Then back is very different it looks high quality can anybody help me with some info on the plate. Also the back has a strange quality. Any help would be much appreciated. I love it regardless but I think it is Antique just don't know the dynasty.

Regards john











Link :Chinese Plate photo

I believe your plate can be dated to about 1840 or a bit later during the second or early third quarter of the 19th century. This would have been the Daoguang (1821-50) and early Xianfeng (1851-61) reigns. The plate was top-quality among export patterns of the time, but it looks to have sustained above average wear and tear, with some flaking to the colored enamels and other chipped areas underneath. The underside also looks like it hasn't been washed in the last hundred years or so, and there are scars on opposite sides where something has either been removed or broken off. Handles would have been anomalous on a dinner plate, and you haven't given us any dimensions on which to base accurate suppositions about this anomaly. However, the scars might be due to the long-term use of metal hangers or perhaps ormolu mounts.

The colored enamels appear to be off-register in your images. If this is not a lighting problem, it could be a sign that the piece was re-fired during an attempt at restoration.

If you can provide the dimensions of the piece and perhaps some better pictures of the aforementioned damaged spots, perhaps I or someone else can base further comment on them. Meanwhile, here are some shots of a 7.75-inch shallow plate in a variant of your same pattern please let us know how the colors compare to yours.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Here's a link to better resolution versions of the previously uploaded images.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :Dragon border famille rose plate

Thank you so much Bill. That is spot on perfect information and more. Brilliant. I saw a similar plate it was a warming type dish so it did have two small handles at the side which have come off. Bill I really appreciate the info. God Bless and Kind Regards John!

The plate appears to me to be mid 19th century in origin. It seems to have two flanges broken off that would put it as part of a fruit cooler set, but it is difficult to correctly identify due to the cropped edges of the photo. I certainly agree with Bill that this could use a good clean. The late enamel colors sometimes "pop" when the cleaning occurs. Howards text shows a border design similar to this that has an armorial center and is dated to the 1830-1850 period. Again, Bill is right on.

My mistake. The flanges would have been used to keep the plate suspended over a hot water bath for warming purposes. A fruit cooler has many small holes in the bottom to drain the water from the ice cooling the fruit placed in it. Sorry!

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