Hi, I have this mandarin wine cup which has a stamped iron red tongzhi seal mark. I think it might be more Guangxu or later. The faces are outlined in black and the foot rim is undercut. I know that some Tongzhi marked pieces were actually made during the Guangxu reign, Might this be one of them.
Tongzhi.
BTW, it is recommended to avoid using a flash or other light, unless you have a blue lamp or filter, when taking pictures. The colors below do not look as they should. If that were the real colors, the item would likely be a fake.
Taking pictures without any artificial lighting during the day, doing it near a window inside (no flash) might bring better results. Sunlight should also be avoided. :-)
Hi Peter, Thanks for your reply. Apologies about the quality of the pictures, I kind of knew they were poor when posting them but they were the best I had. You're right about the flash, they make the colours look a lot more garish than they are in reality. There are seven figures on the cup, would they represent daoist immortals? Would the inscriptions be related to the identity of each figure perhaps?
PS: It personally annoys me when posts are put up with limited information and bad or not enough images expecting others to promptly come back with all the information they want to hand so again apologies for falling into that category.
Gerry, I do not know what this depicts, really. The person in a red-orange robe is apparently a sort of deity. It is often depicted riding a Qilin and has something to do with children. There are always women and children if he is depicted.