Rare China Porcelain Plate With Tobacco Leaf Decor. Qianlong Famille Rose White Blue Qing Dinasty China Chinese

Decorated in underglaze blue, polychrome enamels, and gold, with a pair of phoenix pheasants among leaves and flowers. Two squirrels run on vine branches. Popularly known as the "tobacco leaf", the decoration on this plate features one of the most famous decorations on Chinese porcelain intended for export in the 18th century. As Howard & Ayers note, the leaves might not be those of the tobacco plant. Rather, they derive from the “thick, tropical foliage of South Asian and Pacific plants,” while the flowers are almost certainly hibiscus and passionflower. At least five main variations of the "tobacco leaf" pattern are known, but only one, the one depicted here, includes pheasants and squirrels. For an identical plate, see Thomas V. Litzenburg Jr, Chinese Export Porcelain in the Reeves Center Collection at Washington and Lee University (2003, p. 225, no. 231). see Debomy, Tobacco leaf, and pseudo Tobacco leaf and pseudo, An attempt of Inventory, p. 102 (A2). China Trade Museum (Milton, USA), illustrated by Forbes & Crosby, see Yang-ts'ai, the foreign colors: Rose porcelains of the Ch'ing dynasty, 1982, no. 19. Howard & Ayers in China for the West, London & New York, 1978, vol. II., no. 555-557. Jörg in Chinese Export Porcelain: Chine de Commande from the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, no. 30. See also Chinese Porcelain Company, Important Chinese Export Art, NYC, The Chinese Porcelain Company, 1998, no. 52.