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Hello, I'm hoping someone can help ID period and origin of this 5 inch tall fine porcelain jar with hand painted scene. I'm also curious as to the scene depicted, the gentleman is on his hands a knees an older person appears to be painting? tattooing? on his back. Any idea what this depiction might be?
Would this piece have had a lid originally. Thank you in advance.

I have no idea what's going on in the painting, but your Chinese jar looks to date from about 1920-30 or a bit later into the Republic Period. Sometimes you'll find such jars with apocryphal reign marks in Chinese and old paper labels saying "Made in China".

Best regards,

Bill H.

The scene is taken from the very famous story of Yue Fei, a general of the Song dynasty. His mother wrote (or tatooed) the words 尽忠报国 (jin zhong bao guo) on Yue Fei's back, which meant "to serve the country with utmost loyalty". To this day, this scene is significant in showing loyalty and sacrifice for the country.

Further to my first comment, here are photos of one of the jars I mentioned with a faux Qianlong reign mark and paper "Made in China" label.

Best regards,

Bill H.

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