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i Own a chinese pocelain jar that has written markings from the qianling era. it has fine crazing and shows age. the 6 letters on the bottom are a positive match to qianlong date 1730-1780. It has a colourful butterflies and dragonflies all over as a design. very finely painted with raised glaze. i was wondering where i could go to get this appraised.
Already Tried: This is my first attemp to find value. i wa researching another item and found a great website and dated this piece ive had for sometime Attachment: 036.JPG
Hi! My name is XXXXX XXXXX X would be happy to help with your Chinese porcelain.
Thanks for providing the excellent photo of the base. Those characters do indeed say Da Qing Qianlong Nian Zhi - "Great Qing Qianlong Period Made". Disappointingly, ninety nine percent of all pieces marked in this way are not from that era but usually date to the late 19th or early 20th century. However that's not to say they don't have a value, as they certainly do, and especially now the market for early Chinese Republic pieces is stronger than ever due to the Chinese becoming wealthy enough to collect and buy back what was considered, until a few years ago, mass produced export china.
If you would very kindly provide a picture or two of the rest of the piece including a nice sharp close-up of the decoration, I'll let you know what you have, when it was made and possibly where, and give you a value.
Here's a REALLY simple way to attach pictures (four clicks and a copy-and-paste and you're done!) even I -the last of the technophobe dinosaurs- can do it!
Go to www.imgur.com
click on Computer
Select the picture file from the box that pops up.
Hit open.
Click on Start Upload
And then copy the link they give you and paste it here.
Many thanks and wait to hear,
Robert
http://imgur.com/4ND25 thank you for your expertise and i love that website. here is the links to the pics. thank you
That's great! Thanks for the picture, that helps a lot and what a nice vase!
Did you mean to send more? There was only one in the link you sent me.
If, just before you click Start Upload, you check the box that says Group Images in Album, then one link will get me to all the pictures and which saves you a bunch of time copying and pasting all the individual links.
Isn't imgur great? I am so glad you like too!
Best wishes,
Ok ill do the group thing and try again
OK i uploaded 5 pictures in an album here is the link <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/VweEE/embed"></iframe>
Thanks for the link, I can see all the pictures perfectly now and I'll have a full answer for you shortly!
This is a very distinctive piece decorated with great confidence and artistic skill. The fantasy butterflies and peaches were a popular decorative theme of the 1920sand 1930s when I would estimate it was made. Indeed the shape ~an ovoid jarwhich originally would have had a lid something like these ones have:http://p2.la-img.com/686/28792/11086919_1_x.jpg
and the red Qianlong seal marks all point towards the early Chinese Republic (early 1900s). The decoration was done in a Qianlong style, called fencai orfamille rose a style that had its roots in ancient Chinese cloisonné enamel, which is lots of tiny blobs of colored glass enamel held in place by a framework of wire that outlined the shapes of the drawing, not unlike the lead in a stained glass window.
The porcelain enamel on your piece, however, would have been a thickish paste, painted on by hand, that would have stayed where it was placed, or contained by the slightly indented black lines, however the decorative forms remained very similar to cloisonné. Lots of carefully delineated leaves and scattered flower blossoms, fruit sprays, and of course those wonderful butterflies. The turquoise ground was painstakinglyapplied afterward by filling in the white 'negative space' between the detailsof the pattern, quite a skillful thing to do.
These jars -sometimes called ginger jars- were originally used for the custom of exchanging new year's gifts. The gift would be placed inside and the jar returned afterward. (An admirable form of packaging recycling, and the very first cookie jars as the gift was often something sweet and edible.)
So as to price, if you were to see yours for sale in an antique store, even without the lid, it would have a retail value of $250. This is also the replacement value and what you should insure it for.
Expect to get about 40% to 50% of this if you were to sell at auction or on-line
I do hope this helps!
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,
Experience: Expert in decorative arts especially ceramics, silver, paintings, furniture.