I bought the tiniest little teacup (or possibly a wine cup?) today; it's the first piece of porcelain here I've seen that I thought was genuine. It is quite crude and is only 7cm wide.
The signs of age, as far as I can tell, do not seem to be faked, and there is a small amount of ware to the glaze. There is a small reddish mark (see pics) on the exterior which confuses me.
I am not sure what the decoration is supposed to depict or how old it is (I would guess early 19th century or maybe Qianlong but am just a beginner). I would love feedback on all of these factors if possible. Thanks very much!
More pics in link below
drive.google.com/open?id=1sKjFFfBmXNZcHgkEBe-c5OvmNfsXdD8i
Jiaqing period.
Thanks! Do you know what the decoration depicts?
Thats a good question Isaac, I have never asked that question my self, but looks like some kind of foilage, may be Peter can shed more light on the subject.
This is really a very interesting piece. I have never seen a piece from Jiaqing period before.
I would not have dared to buy it, congratulation.
I am very skeptical, when a piece has too much age signs in my view. So now I know, that this can be a mistake.
Thank you Isaac1998
I think one needs to evaluate whether the signs of age are;
a) genuine and not intentional
b) appropriate for the item and its age
This is very small and not the highest quality, so it was probably knocked about a bit during its use over the years- a few scratches are to be expected. Not everything makes it to the present day perfectly intact; it's just important to differentiate between genuine signs of age and fake ones (if this had been fake, the bottom rim would have probably been painted yellow or brown and the scratches to the glaze would have been much more uniform [they would have scratched it with sandpaper or something]).
You are quite right, that is the way Chinese porcelain should be evaluated. The mark is often irrelevant.
I do not recognize the decoration. It could be one that is typical Jiaqing, but the photographs do not show the side clearly. Is the item somewhere near 4cm diameter? It could be for drinking liquor. Those cups are sometimes considerably smaller than tea cups.
Thanks. I am not sure whether it was some sort of stylised foliage or something else. I hate not being able to identify decoration so will have to do a thorough search through pattern books at one point! You too think it is Jiaqing?
It's 7cm diameter; liquor would probably make a lot more sense as it doesn't hold very much at all. Is there a specific Chinese name for these type of cups? Most of my books only have the romanisations.