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Subject:Famille verte vase - modern?
Posted By: JLim Fri, Oct 10, 2014 IP: 144.132.166.71



Hi all

For a mere $30 at this auction I got the pictured object: a nifty looking famille verte vase depicting some sort of immortals:

http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/jlim2397/library/Verte%20Vase?sort=3&page=1

I bought this thinking it was completely modern. But I had some idea that it might be Republican in date?

These are the factors:
- the object is absolutely unscratched, either to the enamel or to the white porcelain
- however, the enamels are strikingly iridescent, particularly the greens, which has always seemed to me a sign of age
- the shape of the object is pretty odd, with a cylindrical neck
- the painting is very, very neat; only through a lens can I confirm that it is handpainted and not printed on
- there is an odd transparent enamel covering the black lines on the object
- the red-orange bits are matte in texture, as befits iron red enamelling
- the underglaze blue is very grey in colour - some of the greyest I have seen
- the mark is of Kangxi, handpainted quite neatly with a handpainted double circle
- the footrim is white and very neatly trimmed in a rounded form.

Anyone feel this might have some age on it? Or should I (as I suspect) merely regard it as modern and decorative?

Rgds
JLim

Subject:Re: Famille verte vase - modern?
Posted By: Bill H Sun, Oct 12, 2014

If not earlier, there's precedent for this form in Qing 19th century vases, having what for all intents and purposes are necks with rings around their collars. But this one looks to be 20th century, possibly post-1975 I'd guess. The base if not the entire piece has an appearance of having been re-glazed in the kind of stark white slip that I believe many painting factories use nowadays when applying reign mark decals before re-firing freshly decorated Chinese blanks. This mark comes through clearly but sits within a rather anemic-looking double circle with weak overlap of the brush-stroke (if a brush was used at all). This invites speculation that the blank might have come from Jingdezhen with the double circle pre-painted and fired. If such is the case, then it casts doubt on the remainder of the motif. The pictures aren't clear enough and close enough to reach sound conclusions. They don't reveal a lot of brush-stroke detail, and those wave forms with the spotted and tinted foam seem a bit innovative for late Qing or early Republic in my experience, which isn't by any means all-encompassing.

I'm including some pictures of a "Fu Lu Shou" vase I used to own, which piece has some similarities in its motif to yours but an overall appearance of being more in tune with the Republic period.

Best regards,

Bill H.








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