GENUINE CHINESE EXPORT
PORCELAIN PLATE from the dinner
service made for Sir Alexander Mackenzie, decorated with his
family crest, special-ordered by Mackenzie through the
East India Company (c1800) while he was in London between 1799 and 1802.
The dinner ware was passed on to
his cousin Roderick McKenzie when he returned to Scotland
in 1812.
Plate: 7.5” (19cm) diameter. Decorated with gilt-accented floral designs and borders, with the full-colour Mackenzie family coat-of-arms as the central focus. The arms consist of a stag’s head on a gold-rimmed shield of azure, surmounted by a helmet of mountains in flames and a red-accented crest with the bannered motto “Leceo Non Uro” (“I Shine Not Burn” or “Light Not Darkness”), all atop two crossed branches of green foliage and red buds or berries. The colours are symbolic of specific values: gold for generosity and worthy ambition; azure for truth and loyalty; green for hope, joy and loyalty in love; and red for military fortitude and magnanimity.
The plate has a slightly uneven surface, and bluish tinge, which is characteristic of the original dinner ware set. Based on our examination, we believe the plate to be one of the original pieces from Mackenzie’s collection.
Alexander Mackenzie, the first explorer after Samuel Hearne to reach the Arctic Ocean, and the first to reach the Pacific Ocean by an overland route, was knighted shortly after the release of his monumental work “Voyages from Montreal” in 1801.
Plate: 7.5” (19cm) diameter. Decorated with gilt-accented floral designs and borders, with the full-colour Mackenzie family coat-of-arms as the central focus. The arms consist of a stag’s head on a gold-rimmed shield of azure, surmounted by a helmet of mountains in flames and a red-accented crest with the bannered motto “Leceo Non Uro” (“I Shine Not Burn” or “Light Not Darkness”), all atop two crossed branches of green foliage and red buds or berries. The colours are symbolic of specific values: gold for generosity and worthy ambition; azure for truth and loyalty; green for hope, joy and loyalty in love; and red for military fortitude and magnanimity.
The plate has a slightly uneven surface, and bluish tinge, which is characteristic of the original dinner ware set. Based on our examination, we believe the plate to be one of the original pieces from Mackenzie’s collection.
Alexander Mackenzie, the first explorer after Samuel Hearne to reach the Arctic Ocean, and the first to reach the Pacific Ocean by an overland route, was knighted shortly after the release of his monumental work “Voyages from Montreal” in 1801.
The
original dinner ware which he
brought with him to Montreal in 1802, was used by Alexander Mackenzie and his
family for ten years before he passed the surviving pieces on to his cousin Roderick.