A large and rare Chinese armorial plate for the Spanish market (Navia-Osorio for the Palace of Anleo). Qianlong
The plate decorated with flowers and insects, with on the rim the coat of arms of a Spanish family. In the center, a simple bouquet of chrysanthemums and daisies with small flowers and tied at the stems with a very fine ocher ribbon. Around the bouquet are painted several little birds, curiously the same size as the insects (a ladybug, a horse-fly, a butterfly) in the style of Meissen, and on the rim flowers with their branches and leaves delicately falling towards the inside of the plate, amidst them, the shield with the motto Ex me ipso renascor (I am reborn from myself) completes the decoration of the piece.
- Country:
- China
- Period :
- Qianlong (1736-1795), ca. 1760
- Material:
- Porcelain
- Dimension:
- 25 cm (9.84 in.)
- Reference :
- E236
- Status:
- sold
Related works
For an oblong dish of this service, see Cristina Manson Martinez de Bedoya, La Porcelana China – Su creation y las rutas de su llegada a Occidente, 2005, p. 148.
Notice
The coat of arms features in the central part a red bend entwined with dragons that can be associated with the arms of the Navia de Osorio de Anleo family, holders of the Marquesado de Santa Cruz de Marcenado, of great influence in the Navia area in Asturias.
Regarding the inscription found in the motto, several members of the book guild of the 17th century used it along with the figure of the pelican in the seals of their printing presses. The printing press of Sebastian Commelllas in Barcelona already in 1604 presents the same motto in some of the works it publishes. Juan de Bonilla, a book merchant from Zaragoza, who published the emblems of Juan de Horozco in 1603-1604, used the phoenix with the classic motto as his personal emblem, alongside his coat of arms and anagram I.D.B. The use of this coat of arms is also documented by the wealthy 18th-century publisher, Benito Boyer, of French origin established in Medina del Campo, who was responsible for printing the majority of books of that time in Salamanca, using the shield with the phoenix over flames with the same inscription. Another study on heraldic mottos associates it with the surname Bellet without providing further details.
The service was very likely order by Juan Alonso de Navia-Osorio y de Navia (1703-1762) for the Palace of Anleo.
