An unusual pair of Chinese export porcelain Mandarin plates, richly hand-painted  in Famille Rose enamels with wonderful courtly views.  In addition to the fantastic snapshots of Mandarin life, what makes these scenes more unusual than most is that the plate is treated as a blank canvas, the scene rendered across the whole surface to the plate, unframed and unconstricted by extraneous borders – not to mention the rich detail and unusual angles of perspective.  Beautiful condition, measuring 8″ in diameter and dating to circa 1800-1810.