A pair of blue white jar with cover

[T. Chan]

I have a pair of blue white jar with cover and these could be Qing. But which period of Qing? Since the mark looks like the potter mark and I cant read it. And, is this what we call the worm back foot? I have just notice it when I take it out from warehouse. Are these export wares? Thanks.

[Stan]

Hi T Chan, the characters on the bottom read " Ying de xuan bo gu ahi" meaning, Made in the antique style for the pavilion of moral obligation (kangxi), my quess is that they are republic period.

[Stan]

The last character, is spelled zhi, the automatic spell checker changed it, sorry.

[T. Chan]

Hi Stan, moral obligation? Such a strange quotation. So you can read Chinese:-) good. I am Chinese but I cant read. Before, I thought it was the potters mark:-) Thanks anyway.

[peterp]

Like Stan I feel that it is later, although it has some elements resembling export porcelain.
He is also right about the mark. The first part is what sometimes is called a studio name, a sort of owner's mark.  It can also be the name of a shop selling brushes, paintings, calligraphy, antiques, or tea/tea wares, etc.

[T. Chan]

Oh, but it says: made in the antique style 'for' the pavillion of moral obligation? I am confused. In Chinese way, is this 'pavillion of moral obligation', the studio name/potters mark? Why is use the word 'for' and not 'at'? Or, maybe, made in 'the antique style' is the studio name and all the ceramics they produced are given to the ministry of 'moral obligation'? (I think having such a ministry up to now in China is good since I saw moral degradation in the 50s to 90s, and most part of the world too) Thanks.

[peterp]

Just forget about this. Chinese is a wholly different language and expresses things completely different. You just cannot translate some things into European or other languages and keep exactly the same wording or meaning as the original.

[Stan]

Hi everyone, I can't read Chinese, although I just purchased a beginners course in Chinese, I do have Books that give you the mark and the meaning and the time it was used, the book on Marks is called The New & Revised Handbook of Marks on Chinese Ceramics by Gerald Davison, this book has about 3400 marks, it costs, when available about $100.00 and has proven to be a very good book.
The last character on your vase is zhi, this book gives three separate  marks in that the Daoguang marks were written in the Zhuanshu script and the last character dose not match any of the zhi characters, it is like it was written incorrectly, I recommend this book for people like us that can not read Chinese, it is a easy to use reference book.

[Stan]

P.S the mark I was referring to is the vase with stand, and has the horizontal mark on the front of it.

[T. Chan]

Hi Peter and Stan. Glad to hear it. About the recommended book, i have copy paste it so not to forget and will buy it soon. Do you have any other recommended books? Especially about bases? Thanks.

[peterp]

Hi Stan, the last character "zhi" means "made" and seems to be written correctly, as far as I can see, although the picture is a bit small.
I  never saw the whole book, only pictures from he content. Can you tell me if he also has Yixing teapot marks in the book?  I saw that marks were presented black on white, in a printer font. Does he have closeup pictures of marks on porcelain items/shards too?

[Stan]

Hi Peter, Im sure your right, the mark is small but it  dose look different from the marks in the book.
The book dose not cover Yixing teapot marks, what it dose cover is Chinese Dynasties and imperial Reign Periods from Shang c1600 - 1028 BCE to Republic 1912 - 1949 and Hongxian (Yuan Shikai) 1915 - 1916, I will post a photo of the contents.
Hi T Chan, Im sure there are books out there on the bottoms and what not but I have never had to buy any, this site is like have a home tudor, I would save your money, I have bought books though at auctions, one time I bought a whole collection of old Chinese antique porcelain books, and got them for pennies to the dollar, but that was a long time ago, I think they are getting harder to come by.

[peterp]

Hi again, the three characters below all mean "made". The first two are transcribed as "zhi", the third as "zao".  The first one is predominent in the simplified Chinese used in China, today, but was also occasionally used in the past. On antique porcelain the second and third character are found most often. "zao" appears more frequently on Ming porcelain.

?  ?  ?

[Stan]

Thanks Peter,

[T. Chan]

Hi Peter and Stan.
Thank you fo your lesson. To be honest, before, I only know the second character but now, all. Btw, the book looks good. Thanks.