An especially fine Chinese export porcelain  9″ armorial plate, made for the English market, centered with the very grand Arms of Hanbury in pretence with Comyn, this plate was part of a service ordered by prominent London Quaker merchant John Hanbury (1700-1758). According to Howard’s Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Vol. I, page 265, “This famous ‘Virginia Merchant’ was granted very considerable lands in Maryland and Virginia, and aroused animosity among his Quaker friends for permitting slavery on his estates”. Please note the exquisitely wrought gilded grapevine borders, virtually untouched from the day the service was unpacked on the East India docks! Yongzheng period, circa 1735.