A beautiful pair of Chinese export porcelain octagonal form plates decorated in Famille Rose enamels each centered with a scene of a Mandarin family upon a garden terrace either in late autumn or winter as the leaves are off the willow and the pine tree supports the only garden greenery.  Also note the affluent family are all bundled up against the cold – the father with a fur jacket, the mother with a fur collar and even the child has fur cuffs on his robe.  Furs were a status symbol and much sought after; furs and sealskins were in fact one of the few commodities the Chinese were interested in trading for with Western supercargoes. Each scene is surrounded by an elegant gilded rococo border with landscape vignettes. The plates measuring 8 1/2″ and are in very good condition. Qianlong period, third quarter of the 18th century.