Youtang Wang large vase

[peterp]

silk is right, Stan!

Oh my, we have been looking over this repeatedly and did not see this. Thought the ? was an abbreviation of ?  as the  ? is so close that it looks as if it were part of the upper character. So much to the handwriting...

1936 or 1876 -  While this type of Qianjiang might fit into the year 1876, the vase itself cannot be that early, I'm afraid.

[peterp]

There is one other thing - I have been looking for evidence that the character ? in the same column as the year was used in this simplified form in earlier times. It is a simplified character nowadays used in the PRC.  I could find no proof of its existence, not even in the Kangxi dictionary. The normal writing should be  ? . If that is correct and it was never abbreviated like that in earlier times, then it means that the writing has to be from the era of the  PRC, not earlier than 1956.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, and thank you Silk.

[Stan]

Sorry Peter and silk, here is a photo of the left side, I do not see the character the Peter is talking about, it all looks Greek to me.

[peterp]

Which one?
? is the first one,  ?? is the third respectively fourth character, both in the second last line (second column from the left).

[Stan]

So not earlier than 1956, thanks Peter.