little Chinese vase

[de munte]

Today I bought this nanking ? vase.

There is no mark on it.

Around 1900? Or later?

Greetings Peter

[de munte]

Photos

[peterp]

Guangxu probably.

FYI:
Please note that the warrior decoration is often newer than the rest of such vases, when you consider buying one. They often have only the crackling and the brown areas, and possibly a Chenghua mark. That means the vase itself is often plain, withouta  color decoration, and the decoration was added later to increase the perceived value. I would suggest to avoid those, because the final vase age would be that of the last decoration, even if it was fired much earlier. :-)

[de munte]

Thanks Peter

[Stan]

Hi De Munte, and Peter, I was told by someone that was doing a hands on inspection on one of my vases with similar decoration and crackle glaze, if you look at the red color, it is dull and often gritty to the touch, that is an early 20th century sign or later, the earlier ones the red is smooth to the touch, Im not 100 percent on that but I will sure love to hear what Peter has to say.

[peterp]

That sounds to me like too different color types. The flat, smooth type is of the type used in wucai colors. The fencai colors would be thicker and might well give that feeling you said, if not mixed well. Fencai are enamels requiring that a powder is applied first to the area to be painted (to make them stick, it seems), and they also contain glass powder in the colors themselves. But...there are thin fencai colors too. The low quality ones are often thick. What one can look for with this type of porcelain is whether there are any crackles visible through the colors. The other is the colors themselves. Because these were often applied in the 20th century they may be chemical colors that look different from mineral colors. Sometimes there are colors like the white, which were not widely used in the late Qing dynasty and if, mostly in finely painted decorations.
Also be aware that some fencai colors (yellow for example) are more prone to crackles than others. You might find decorations where only one specific color contains crackles, the others not, in older items.
As to the wucai colors, there are two types, one is applied on the glaze, another one underneath.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, that is good to know.