Set of three plates, Compañía de las Indias, 18th century. Enamelled porcelain. The edges are slightly pitted. Measurements: 3.5 x 23 cm. These plates present a beautiful floral design. The oriental influence can be seen both in the technique used, with blue and white bichromatic tones typical of "blue and white" porcelain, and in the geometric fretwork that defines the wings, typical of oriental compositions. The pieces were made in China, albeit for the European market, through the East India Company. Objects of Chinese origin, such as porcelain, have been known in the West since ancient times. As some of the Pradro Museum's catalogues point out, "Chinese manufacturers soon realised that Europeans were not connoisseurs of porcelain, and they made export porcelain, vulgar, even flawed, but which in the eyes of Westerners are true works of art. Once the trade was regularly organised, the India Companies supplied Chinese artists with European models, both for forms and decoration. Throughout the 18th century, the blue and white series persisted, but of inferior quality, which was then called Nanjing porcelain, and especially the famille rose type".