A rare Chinese en grisaille and gilt royal portrait plate (Louise of Denmark-Norway). Qianlong period

Decorated en grisaille, and heightened in blue enamel and gold. In the centre is a circular medallion displaying the three-quarter length portrait of Louise of Denmark-Norway, dressed with an ermine collar over a royal robe embossed with crowns and wearing elaborate earrings and a pearl tiara atop her curly hair. The plate is decorated with with gilt spearhead border on the cavetto, and around the rim, a border with four cartouches is filled with a trellis pattern du Paquier-style flanked by perched birds, intercalating with wreaths and two further sat-work panels decorated with two cupids riding a dolphin.

Provenance

From a French Collection

Related works

For a pair of plates (King Frederick V and Queen Louise of Denmark-Norway) see Christie’s NYC, Mandarin & Menagerie: The Sowell Collection and Chinese Export Art From Various Owners, 26 January 2015, lot 116 (sold 18.750 USD). The plate with Queen Louise came from The Espirito Santo Collection and was published by M. Beurdeley in Porcelaine de la Compagnie des Indes, 1969, p. 133 (attributed to the King’s second wife, Juliana Maria, dated of circa 1760).

A plate with the Queen Louise was in the Miller Collection (sold at Christie’s NYC, Chinese Export Art including the Sowell Collection, 21 january 2016, lot 68)

A plate with the Queen Louise was in the Khalil Rizk Collection (sold at Sotheby’s NYC, The Collection of Khalil Rizk, 25 april 2008, lot 182, sold 8.750 USD).

Luisa Vinhais & Jorge Welsh published recently four plates (three plates with the Queen Louise and one plates with the King Frederick V), in Through Distant Eyes: Portraiture in Chinese Export Art, october 2018, pp. 108/112. (some of them from the collections mentioned previously).

Two pairs of plates (Queen Louise and King Frederick V) were also sold at Christie’s NYC, Chinese Export Ceramics from a European Collection, 11 may 2004, lot 125 & 126.

Set of plates representing the two figures can be found in the Peabody Essex Museum and published by W. R. Sargent in Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics: From the Peabody Essex Museum, 2012, p. 324, no. 172 ; and in the Kunstindustrimuseet (Copenhague). A plate with the King is in the States Museum for Kunst (Copenhague).

Two pair of plates were also in the Mottahedeh Collection (sold at Sotheby’s NYC, 19 october 2000, lot 145), and in the Hervouët Collection (sold at Sotheby’s Monte Carlo, 22th june 1987, lot 1623 ; published by Hervouët & Bruneau in La Porcelaine de la Compagnie des Indes, nos. 9.101 and 9.102, the Queen Louise plate formerly in the collection of H. Danielsen, Copenhagen).

Notice

Louise of Denmark-Norway was the daughter of King George II of England. She married Frederick V at Christiansborg on December 11, 1743, and they became king and queen of Denmark and Norway in 1746. These portraits representing King Frederick V and his wife, were taken from engravings by Johann Martin Preissler, which in turn were after paintings by Carl Gustave Pilo (1712-1792), a historical artist who painted most of the royal families of northern Europe.