A fantastic example of Chinese export special order armorial porcelain made for the English market, these fine plates are from a service bearing the Arms of Chapman quarterly impaling Wood quarterly with Edmundson in pretence. These elaborate and flamboyantly rendered arms with their Latin motto fill the well of the plate within a gilded spearhead cavetto border, the rim decorated with an understated rendering of elegant flowering peony branches in bianco-sopra-bianco. Services such as these were de rigueur status symbols for the English nobility of the 18th century, advertising their wealth and connections. Discussed and illustrated in Howard’s Chinese Armorial Porcelain, vol. I, page 411. Measuring 9″ in diameter, and in very good condition. Circa 1740.  $1,500.00 each.