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Chinese Armorial Porcelain Chinese Export Porcelain European Armorial Porcelain Heraldic Objects Archive

Plate, Qianlong c.1750, with the arms of Bettes


The arms are of Bettes or Betts, but the usual crest of a ’buck’s head out of a ducal coronet’ has here been replaced by a decorative motif resembling a flower head, and the unrecorded motto ’Pas sans tache’ (Not without stain) is an unusual variant on ’Sans tache’.

Branches of families with this name but with variations in the coat are recorded in Hampshire, Norfolk and most notably in Suffolk by the Betts family of Wortham (the same arms but a ’bordure argent’), a history of whom, covering four hundred years in that location, was published in 1912.

An early 18th Century bookplate with exactly these arms, but with buck’s head crest, is in the Franks Collection (2434) and is engraved ’George Betts of Wortham in Suffolk’.

Reference : To be illustrated in a third volume of Chinese Armorial Porcelain

Condition : Two edge chips filled: one larger, the other small; strengthening of black on shield

Size : 9 inches

Stock Number : 44269

Price : £1,350



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