974 - Chinese export armorial hot water plate, Qianlong ca. 1750-56. Decorated with the large and complex coat of arms of Hohenzollern encircled by the collar and bade of the Order of the Black Eagle, surmounted by a helmet and crown and flanked by two male figures holding standards displaying black and red eagles. All against an ermine-lined red clock decorated with black eagles and crowns and beneath a silvered canopy with a crowned eagle. The rim with a crowned eagle crest and gilt band border. Each eagle with the initials FR for Frederick II, King of Prussia. Provenance: Christie's, New York, "Captains and Kilns: British Ceramics, Chinese Export and Maritime Art," 21 January 2003, Lot 283; The Distinguished Collection of Leo & Doris Hodroff. Lot Essay: This is likely from a service commissioned by the Prussian East India Company as a gift for King Frederick II who founded the company in 1750. As a result of the Seven Year's War, the company had disbanded by 1756. Between 1753 and 1791 there are seven recorded Prussian ships at Canton. Apparently the Prinz von Preussen, the ship carrying this service home from Canton, ran aground in the East Frisian islands, but was refloated and the service eventually made its way back to Emden, with some damages. Princess Hermine, a Hohenzollern descendant, wrote about this shipwreck in her 1928 memoir, recounting that the pieces were displayed in the smoking room of the castle after having been shipwrecked in the North Sea and salvaged in 1910. Width: 10 3/4 in x diameter: 9 1/2 in x depth: 2 in.