Decorated in underglaze blue, polychrome enamels, and gold, with a pair of pheasants amongst leaves and flower blossoms beneath two squirrels on the branches of vine, three prunus sprays on the reverse, gold edge on the lobed rim.
Decorated in underglaze blue, polychrome enamels, and gold, with a pair of pheasants amongst leaves and flower blossoms beneath two squirrels on the branches of vine, three prunus sprays on the reverse, gold edge on the lobed rim.
Popularly known as the “Tobacco Leaf” pattern, the decoration on this plate exhibits some on the design work known on eighteenth-century export ware. As Howard and Ayers note, the distinctive leaves might not be those of the tobacco leaves plant. They possibly derive instead from the “thick, tropical, variegated-leaf- foliage of Southern Asia and the Pacific”, while the blossoms almost certainly are hibiscus and passion flowers.
