Tea Caddy

[Stan]

Hi Peter, and all, here is a tea caddy that I have had for awhile, I am not sure if this is Chinese or not, it has a spurious Yongle mark and the color is strange but it does have dead bubbles. I purchased a collection of tea caddies and this is one of the caddies that came with the collection, I hope it is Chinese. The tea caddy is 12.9 cm tall from the bottom to the top of the lid.

[Stan]

Here are more photo's to view.

[Stan]

Here are two more photo's, close ups of the front and back.

[peterp]

The shape is a typical Qianlong era caddy shape, except that the base of the neck does not look like those I know.

I cannot read the second character of the mark, but spurious or not, it is not a Yongle mark. It says "Yong ?? Tang zhi" or 永 ? 堂製, as far as I can see. The third character means "hall" used both in Japanese and Chinese for business enterprises. The seal character style is not of the old, Qing dynasty type. The faces and eyes look not Chinese, as you can see. My guess is it is either not Chinese or made after the Qing dynasty, but the caddy shape would be a mystery. I do not know if such caddies were made for export after the early 19th century. Sorry.

[Adriano]

Hi Peter and Stan,

I have a vase with the same mark: Yong Sheng Tang Zhi (永勝堂製).
A reference is here:
https://www.gotheborg.com/marks/20thcenturychina.shtml#yongtang

[peterp]

It seems to have been a manufacturer of export porcelain from the late Qing dynasty into the 20th century, located in Yunnan province, southern China.

If you do an image search using "永胜堂制" you should be able to look at other items made by the manufacturer.

[Stan]

So 20th century, makes since, that explains the thickness of the porcelain and the decoration, the other  tea caddies are thinly potted and typical for Qianlong and early 19th century, thanks Peter and Adriano.

[Stan]

I found a piece that has similar decoration and exact color with the same mark with a sticker on the inside that reads "Made in the peoples republic" they are dating theirs to the mid 20th century there were several tea caddies in the collection most of them blue and white but some with poly chrome decorations dating to the Qianlong period most of the caddies have ivory lids and one with a silver lid, this was the only caddy with its original lid.