A CHINESE EXPORT ARMORIAL RETICULATED SMALL PLATE MADE FOR CATHERINE THE GREAT OF RUSSIA CIRCA 1785

the center painted in brown monchrome heightened in gilding with the Imperial Russian double-headed eagle charged on the breast with St. George and the dragon within a flower garland and ribbon entwined border around the cavetto and a thin gilt cable around the rim edge. Minor tiny rim chip.

Sold, Christie's, New York, January 21, 1999, lot 248

This service is one of several, including the well-known Wedgwood 'Frog' service, made for Catherine II during her 1762-96 reign. A similar plate with a reticulated rim is illustrated by Clare Le Corbeiller, China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange, p. 112, fig. 60; a dinner plate from this service, in the collection of Mildred R. and Rafi Y. Morrahedeh, is illustrated David S. Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, Vol. II, pl 455, no. 461, and was subsequently sold in these rooms, January, 30, 1985, lot 273.