Qianjiang vase

[Stan]

Hi Peter, here is a Qianjiang vase, it is 43.4 cm high, the top has been repaired and a small repair on the edge, all the colors are flat, they do not have a shine like the fencai glazed colors, it has nice age to it, and looks authentic, can you tell me if there is a date or what the writing says, I think the subject mater is a dog with pups and the other side has people, the colors are very faint and the people can hardly be made out, also the mark on the bottom I could not find in my books, I will post 10 photo's, thanks for your help.

[Stan]

Here are more photo's to view.

[Stan]

Here are the last photo's, thanks for viewing.

[peterp]

Hi, there is a name, but I can not read the first characters due to the handwriting. Will have to ask someone else. It seems to be a lady painter, though. The year appears to be 1912.
The bottom mark says Made by Cao Qi-fa, apparently a known qianjiang painter. Possibly the workshop owner and the former a painter?
The dog is a foo dog or lion. It is infrequent that two so different decorations are found on the same item.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, for the record, under the magnification of loop, the porcelain is very fine and the white glaze has very small bubbles to none, and the drawing detail is very fine like the foo lions, the hair is drawn so fine that you can hardly see it with the naked eye, but under a loop the hair makes up the foo lions, just thought you might be interested how it was hand drawn, I also see the same light brown color that the foo lions were drawn and painted in the rest of the detail, the writing and some of the out lines and writing on the other side of the vase looks like it was all painted by the same artist, however the hair on the people in not as detailed as the hair on the foo lions.

[peterp]

Actually, I have been thinking whether one of the two was added at a later time. The Qianjiang painter mentioned in the bottom mark seems to have been painting people.  Also, lions usually do not appear with people on the same item.
The characters of the lady artisan's name remain unreadable even to Chinese. This handwriting is really something...

[Stan]

Do you mean " really something" in a good way or bad way?

[peterp]

In a negative way, of course... :-)
Artists may sometimes write some characters just as it is convenient, disregarding readability or style, perhaps because the flow of the strokes is easier, making it difficult to read for others.
You are more likely to see such difficult-ro-read characters in Japanese signatures or marks.

[Stan]

Thanks again Peter for your expertise.