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Hello,
This painting is on a Limoges plate from 1870-1880. The painting is signed something that looks like Shirava. I am not an expert but the painting seems to have a high quality, with a lot of details using a single hair brush Any way I was wondering if some one knows of Shirava or other Asian art work painted on Limoges or any other information about this painting. Thanks.

Since there are many blanks (white ware) available this could have been painted at any time and even in Japan as Limoges blanks made there way around world. I do not think it was anything out of France. It is Haviland & Co. older mark, you can find these artwork on these dated from 1880's to now with people still using the blanks.

Thanks for the info Billy. The thing that is curious is that it is signed in English by a name that sounds Indian and it is done very expertly, definitely not by an amateur. May be it was done in Japan and then exported to Europe or US........

Yes, the artwork is very high quality and very Japanese so that would be a high probability. Good luck!

Nineteenth century Haviland porcelain was a fairly common platform for antique Chinese patterns, particularly rose medallion, of which I offer up images of a cup & saucer as an example. After the opium wars and for most of the late 19th century, the British and French controlled Chinese inland navigation routes. And after the Taiping Rebels spawned a porcelain shortage by ransacking Jingdezhen and assassinating many potters there in 1855, the English and French simply brought in cargos of fine European porcelain blanks for painting in the famed factories at Canton. In addition to the Haviland, I also have Chinese-painted blanks from the Carl Tielsch kiln in what was then Silesia. I believe some Meissen porcelains were decorated at Canton as well.

I have no knowledge related to your Haviland dish with Japanese decoration, except to say that there's no reason to think the French and British ships weren't also calling at Japanese ports with the same kinds of cargoes during the late 19th century, particularly after 1868, when Meiji rule sparked a great increase in foreign trade.

Of course, considering how well the artisans of Canton were painting porcelain to European tastes, I suppose it might also might have been possible that someone commissioned a factory there to paint some Limoges blanks in Japanese styles (though I can't spot a thing about your dish that shows anything but the hand of a superb Japanese porcelain painter.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thanks Billy. That is really good info Which I think explains where the painting might have originated. Based on the history you provided, I also think it has to be japanese, even though I haven't seen any similar plate with my google searches. The only odd thing still is the Shirava(?) signature. If Shirava is a Japanese name then case would be completely closed :)

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