Qianlong period circa 1770
European Market
Length: 11 inches; 28cm
from the Golden Gate Collection, GG1037

Priced in US dollars  
$5,000
This item is located in the USA in the state of California. Shipping from there is at the buyer's expense. Please enquire if you would like to know more.

A fine Chinese export porcelain meatdish decorated with the ‘tobacco leaf’ pattern in underglaze blue and famille rose enamels, with leaves and flowers, the rim lobed to imitate a leaf edge.

The origins of the tobacco leaf design remain unclear though it is thought to have been inspired by designs on Indian textiles.  It was very popular in the second half of the eighteenth century and appears in a wide range of versions which included pheasants or  treeshrews and in so-called ‘pseudo-tobacco leaf’, with different colours, as well as a later nineteenth century versions in very thick bright enamels.

References: Debomy 2013, p78, other examples like this, which the author classifies as pattern A1.1; Cohen & Cohen 2015, p74-5, Nos 48-9, a teapot and mug decorated in the same pattern.