Throughout the 16th to 19th centuries, Chinese artisans produced millions of pieces of porcelain for export to Europe and the United States, of which is now admired around the globe. What is often forgotten is the complicated relationship between the Chinese artisans and their English-speaking patrons, which resulted in thousands of pieces with mistakes due to instructions literally being lost in translation.

David Howard describes in A Tale of Three Cities, London, 1997, p. 97, a mistake on a service made for the Haldane of Gleneagles family, ca. 1730. As seen on the present lot, the armorial was painted by the artisan in the form of a bookplate. In their instructions, the Haldane family provided an example of the armorial on a bookplate, which is directly copied onto the pieces in the service, leaving the armorial enclosed within a border.