A Chinese Export Armorial Chamfered Rectangular Platter Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, Circa 1790 | 清乾隆 約1790年 粉彩紋章圖長方盤

Acquired by the current owner's grandmother, and thence by descent

The Ker-Martin service is one of the most elaborately decorated services made in China for the English market, with Hope in the center supporting a shield decorated with the arms, and the four cartouches representing the four known quarters of the globe. The four quarters depicted are: Asia, represented by a seated figure dressed in a Chinese-inspired robe in a desert landscape with a camel, pyramids and a pagoda; Africa, represented by a seated figure in landscape with an elephant and a crocodile; America, represented a figure in Native American-inspired dress with a lion behind a tree, and Europe, represented by a lady seated holding an olive branch atop rockwork with ships in the distance and cannons in the foreground. 

For the arms, see David Sanctuary Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Vol. I, London, 1974, p.694, V1. An identical pair of examples, formerly in the collection of Louis F. and Henry S. McNeil, sold at Christie's New York, October 14th, 1999, lot 111.