A GRISAILLE-ENAMELED 'EUROPEAN-SUBJECT' PLATE AFTER LANCRET Qianlong period, circa 1750 Carefully enameled in shades of black and grey simulating printer's ink with a careful copy of a European engraving depicting two attractive ladies and their umbrella bearer greeting a swaying young man beside a bearded monk, within iron-red and gilt spearhead and baroque scroll bands around the border. 9in (23cm) diam Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1750年 墨彩開光仿蘭克雷繪《歐洲人物故事》盤 Published Cohen & Cohen, Tyger Tyger!, Antwerp, 2016, pp. 122-123, no. 54 (one of two) 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Tyger Tyger!》，安特衛普，2016年，頁122-123，圖版編號54(二之一) The print on which this subject is based is entitled 'Les Oies de Frère Philippe', (fig. 1) engraved by Nicolas de Larmessin IV after a painting by Nicolas Lancret that now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The story comes from Jean de la Fontaine's 'Contes et Nouvelles', itself inspired by one included in Boccacio's Decameron. An innocent young man spies some beautiful girls and asks 'Brother Phillip' what they are. To prevent the youth succumbing to temptation, the monk replies that they are only geese. Around 1730, a collection of engraved illustrations for La Fontaine's Contes were published. Using, as their original source, paintings by a number of artists including Boucher, Le Mesle, Vleughels, Pater, Eisen, Lorrain and Lancret. Known as 'Le Suite de Larmessin' after the principal engraver, these prints were initially sold as a print collection, and then published in book form along with Fontaine's text. Six of the prints from the Suite are reproduced on Chinese export porcelain, including this one. Most are reversed, suggesting that the prints taken to China were re-engraved copies of the Larmessin prints. It was reproduced over a period of about twenty years, and some later pieces are quite crudely drawn. It is here executed in high quality suggesting these are from an early order. For an example in famille rose enamels now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, see Cohen & Cohen, Baroque & Roll, Antwerp, 2015, p. 90-91, no. 58. References: Hervouët & Bruneau, 1986, nos. 9.13-15, p. 199; Arapova 2003, a plate in purple and grisaille; Shimizu & Chabanne, 2003, no. 163, p. 211, a grisaille plate; Pinto de Matos, 2011, Vol. 2, no. 329, p. 244, a grisaille plate; and Brawer, 1992, cat. 83, p. 110, a plate. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ¤ ¤ Without reserve