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The attached picture shows photos of blue and white china, that to my knowledge have been in my family's possession for at least 150 years.
The top three plates are of the same set as the center picture, which I was told by my mother (long dead) were Nanking Blue, but the lower plate, I think, may be not be Chinese. There are six plates of each type (twelve in all) and all in near perfect condition.
I have no desire to part with these for obvious reasons but having seen your most interesting Web site, I thought that you may be able to give me some idea as to their origin and possibly a rough idea of their value.
Thanking you in anticipation
Thank you for sending me this nice picture.
The three plates on the top row and the one in the middle are Chinese export porcelain from roughly the 1760s.
They could in fact be a few years earlier i.e. from the 1750s. You could see this for yourself by taking a look on their back sides, since the earlier pieces often have a few branches painted with a few quick brush strokes on the underside of their rims, and this habit of decoration the underside of the rims ends by the mid 18th century.
Not that you cannot find earlier pieces without decoration under the rim, the thing is that you will rarely find later porcelain with decoration under the rim.
The plate far down the picture is, as you thought not Chinese. It might be early English but most of all it looks like 18th century Dutch Delft faience.
You can see also this by yourself if the plate seems to be made of yellowish earthenware instead of porcelain.
If it is made of some kind of hard porcelain, my best guess is that it is in fact, English.
Regarding a value, this is not easy to give but Chinese Export blue and white plates of this kind usually sell for between US $60 up to $150 each in the antiques trade. Early English plates could sell for more, and Dutch 18th century Delft, usually for less.
I hope this helps some anyway.
Jan-Erik Nilsson
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