I have a Chinese Bowl with the following characteristics which I have had a great deal of difficulty in researching.
Details are as follows
Small chinese ceramic bowl
100mm diameter
Decorated with iron red chinese garden scene featuring a accentuated tree in the foreground a figure crossing a bridge in the intermediate ground and a chinese pavilion on a hill in the background
Chinese 10 line x 4 character poem in black characters at the rear flanked by diamond shaped seal and square seal. I understand that the poem describes that of the famous Tang dynasty poet Li Bai and how he drinks wine to stimulate his creativity
All to my eye very finely painted with very fine brush work
Seal is iron red 4 character quianlong in a double square border.
Entire body internally and externally silver washed. Silver has tarnished somewhat and needs proper cleaning.
This is an unusual item in my experience as I have never been able to find any information on this silver wash decorative effect on chinese ceramics. I believe it is possibly of the period as to copy this technique at a later date would I believe be difficult.
Bought in Singapore approx 35 years ago
Below is a photo of the bowl in question if it helps in evaluation
You only show the back, no front, interior and bottom. Are you sure that the bowl is not made of metal?
To my knowledge there was no antique porcelain treated like this in ancient China. It is either vintage or modern.
I got the impression that the characters are below the silvery substance, is that right?
Peterp
Thanks for your response, I can confirm that the bowl is ceramic and not silver. I believe that the silver is a thin coating fired onto the body and to me it looks as it may cover the decoration but is very thin over the decoration if it does. It seems much thicker on the un-decorated parts. You can see on the photo with the calligraphy that the silver has run during the application process. Some additional photos attached
The calligraphy is mediocre and the poem doesn't make any sense. but what strikes me is that the character "wind" is written in the simplified form , which suggests a style of the cultural revolution of the 60s.
Shelley is right regarding the character. I emphasize that I never have seen such a decoration on porcelain, much less on antique porcelain.
I would suggest to be careful with this bowl, just in case that the silvery covering contains any mercury.
The glaze looks a lot like american pottery called "weeping gold" and "weeping silver". Over glazed areas it is bright and shiny and over unglazed clay it looks matte. If I recall corectly this was popular in the 1950s.