'Kitchen Qing' Blue And White Porcelain Dishes

Plate 1
Diameter : 22cm

Plate 1

Plate 2
Diameter : 26cm

Plate 2

Here are two blue and white porcelain dishes which believed are from Qing dynasty, from Southern China, exported to the Straits Chinese Market around late 19th century.

Both of these plates are of two different sizes and are decorated with a sweet pea motif in cobalt enamel. From my research, blue and white porcelain of this type was exported to Southeast Asia from China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Highly durable, blue and white dishes were used on a daily basis in the Straits Chinese kitchen for both dining and for making offerings on the household altar,
in account of the blue and white colouring being associated with mourning.

The designs drawn on these two plates are particularly neat and without any shading. As such, they are believed to be finer examples of 'Kitchen Qing' than normally
encountered.

Both have Kuang Hsu (Guangxu) reign marks to the base (1871-1908), however it is believed that such pieces with the sweet pea motif were made almost exclusively for Peranakan homes during the late 19th century.