Nonya Porcelain Plates

Four Large Straits Chinese Plates

These four plates made in China to Straits Chinese tastes have a larger diameter than most such Nonyaware plates (usually the diameters range between 10 and 20 centimetres.) Each is decorated in enamels with a phoenix perched on ornamental rockwork beside pink and blue peonies, framed by a pink-ground border of lotus and Buddhistic emblems and a scalloped, gilded rim.

The reverse of each is decorated with detached sprigs of blue and pink flowers.

Each has a shop mark and the city of manufacture to the base: the maker is Caoshuntai Zao in Jingzhen city.

These plates most probably belonged to a set of porcelain commission from China by a wealthy Malacca or Singapore

baba family for an elaborate Straits Chinese wedding.

Overall condition is excellent. There is the usual minor fritting to the rims and some loss to the gilt to the edges. There are no cracks or restorations.

Ho, W.M., Straits Chinese Porcelain: A Collector’s Guide, Times Books International, 1983.

Kee, M.Y.,

Straits Chinese Porcelain, Kee Ming Yuet Sdn Bhd, 2004.

Kee, M.Y.,

Peranakan Porcelain: Vibrant Festive Ware of the Straits Chinese, Tuttle Publishing, 2009.

The Southeast Asian Ceramics Society – West Malaysia Chapter,

Nonya Ware and Kitchen Ch’ing, Oxford University Press, 1981.

UK art market