Qianlong period (1736-95), circa 1755, porcelain octagonal shaped plate, hand painted in polychrome enamels with the coat of arms of Skinner family, three griffin heads on black ground, rim decorated with a garland of brightly colored flora and gold diaper pattern to interior.

9 in. diameter

Private Collection, Virginia Beach, Virginia Collected by the consignor and her husband with the guidance of David Sanctuary Howard, who literally wrote the book on Chinese Armorial porcelain. The couple began collecting during the 1970s from galleries and auction houses across Europe and the United States, and even from Howard himself. This collection is a very special offering of some rare and wonderful pieces collected over a lifetime with great care and passion.

A plate from this set is illustrated in Howard, David S. Chinese Armorial Porcelain, 1974: London, Faber and Faber, Ltd., p. 608.

This service was probably created for Stephen Skinner, who bought the Elizabethan mansion of Rookwood Hall in Abbess Roothings in Essex from the Duke of Bedford in 1739, and later inherited Bishops Hall in Lambourne.

Minor fretting and associated retouching at the rims; paper label to underside.