A CHINESE EXPORT PORTRAIT PLATE circa 1750

painted en grisaille with a half-length portrait of Queen Louise of Denmark, the cavetto with a gilt spearhead border, and the rim with two scroll- and strapwork-edged panels of cupids with a dolphin, alternating with trelliswork panels and pairs of birds flanking beribboned wreaths of fruit suspended from foliate scrolls, all heightened in blue enamel and gilding. 

Lucien Vigneau, Paris

San Francisco, Fall Antiques Show, 1995

A shallow 1mm chip under the rim at 12:00, otherwise good.
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Princess Louise (1724-51), the daughter of King George II of England, married Frederik V of Denmark (1723-66) in 1743, and in 1746 they became King and Queen of Denmark and Norway.  Shortly after her premature death, her husband remarried in 1752, and the portrait on plates of this subject often have been misidentified as Louise's successor, Queen Juliane Marie (1729-96).  An identical plate is illustrated by Beurdeley, p. 129, fig. 89, who identifies the subject erroneously as Juliane Marie, but notes that it was taken from an engraving by Johann Martin Preissler [or Preisler] (1715-94) after a painting "by Carl Gustave Pilo (1712-92), a historical artist who painted all the Royal families of northern Europe."  Hervouët and Bruneau, p. 228. who also illustrate an identical plate, no. 9.102, and its pair, no. 9.101, depicting Queen Louise's husband, King Frederik V, comment that both portraits were based on Preissler prints after Pilo portraits.  A plate depicting Frederik V and the Preissler print of 1748 from which it was taken are both illustrated by Grandjean, figs. 35 and 36, Kat. 18, who comments on p. 40 that the portrait of Queen Louise was based on Preissler's print of 1747—the date of the print clarifying the identity of the royal portrait on the Chinese export plates.

The aforementioned pair of plates from the collection of François Hervouët was sold at Sotheby's in Monte Carlo on June 22, 1987, lot 1623.  A single Queen Louise portrait plate was offered at Christie's in London on November 15, 2000, lot 306.