Bat shaped bowl

[Adriano]

I would like to have comments on this bowl.
Judging by porcelain glaze and decoration, it looks me Guangxu period.
Probably there is a date geng zi (1900) , but not sure of geng.

Thank you.

[Adriano]

more

[peterp]

Hi Adriano,

Yes, this looks as if it was late Guangxu indeed.
This is part of a so-called "sweetmeat set". This was not used for meat alone. According to some source the original word from which the English word 'meat' developed meant just 'food'; I mention this because I could imagine this full of different meat types. Some of these sets have just too many parts for that. A complete set comes with a box.
Even today the Chinese love eating in groups at round tables for up to ten people. There will be lots of dishes and plates on the table and people pick from these.

[Adriano]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the interesting information.