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Dear Forum,
I have a beautifully worked "famille rose" cloisonné vase. I have wondered for a while just how old it may be. I believe it was bought in China around 1895-1915. I does have a nasty dent to one side of the neck. None the less, i do love the quality of workmanship.
No markings. Any help in dating the vase would be gratefully received. Thanks

Excuse my ignorance, but what does "Decheng" mean?

I was ignorant until i did some research. Decheng was a factory operating in Beijing around 1900. It made high quality reproductions of qialong and earlier cloisonné. A friend suggested they might be from this factory and period. I've seen some pieces by the Decheng factory, and they do indeed appear quite similar to this vase; in that they too are famille rose. However, all the Decheng pieces i've seen have been clearly marked as such on the base.

Thank you! I did a Google image search for "Decheng cloisonne" and found some interesting pieces from Bonhams, Christies and other auctions.

One of the Christies auctions noted, "The marks read de cheng (virtuously made)."

URL Title :Google image search results Decheng Cloisonne

The blog at the Chinese website "My Crystal Bridge" has an interesting article on the vase picture quoted herein.

"The mark at the bottom of the vase is made of three Chinese characters, which is the name of the workshop that made it. It reads from right to left "De Xing Cheng". De Xing Cheng made quite some vases in this style. De Xing Cheng cloisonnes all bear similar marks. There are two variations of the middle character, xing, which means flourishing or thriving."





URL Title :De Xing Cheng vase discussion

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