25" Blue white moonflask with carved (relief) dragon time period made?

Started by Vivien, Mar 26, 2015, 16:54:24

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Vivien

Hello, I would appreciate any opinions as to the time period this 25" tall moonflask was made.  It has a carved dragon on both sides and is hand painted. The piece was stored on a patio for years by previous owner and has been exposed to direct sun and weather.  It was very dirty and I cleaned the dragon on one side to get a better look.  I noticed the blue on the overhanging lower portion seems a bit more vivid then the top, but that might be my imagination. 
There is an (apocryphal?) yongzheng mark on the bottom.
I cannot find any examples online, ebay, auction catalogs etc.  There are a few small horrible new import decorator moon flasks  with carving but nothing anywhere remotely close to this 25" moonflask's quality of carving and painting.  This heavy piece leans a bit (ran out of pictures to show this)  Thanks for any help.

Vivien

Hello,  i will gladly post photos with flash, and or daylight photos if the moderator will permit additional photos beyond the five.  I noticed under flash the blue color and hand painted detail is much more visible.  have not seen this piece outside in daylight yet but will add pictures if wanted.  Thanks

peterp

Hello, I'm afraid that while the dragon may be very detailed, the item itself is more recently made, not an antique. Apart from the blue color having no depth as older items do, the mark looks like a printing font. It should be hand written, and rather in another character style.

Vivien

Thank you Peter for your response.  Yes,  I was not thinking this was a 17th or 18th century ceramic, but likely a 20th century piece that was not mass produced.

I am hoping someone has seen an example with these same characteristics (extremely large size,  detailed hand painting, and the rarely seen detailed relief work) so that it can be placed in the very large range of 20th century possibilities, i.e. 1930's , 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's?. 

I have added some improved lighting photos since the first batch looked somewhat  washed out.  Although this vase sat out in southern California sunshine day after day for years in direct UV sunlight I imagine that will degrade the color somewhat.  I see a lot of sun lightened ceramic pottery in gardens here.
So, if anyone has any specific examples of a similar piece with these characteristics I would love to see the example, since most of the mass produced pieces coming out of China recently are of low quality and low detail, and many examples of them can be found on the Internet since they are mass produced.

The unusual combination of highly detailed hand painting , the detailed mid-relief dragons, and the 64 cm height, seems to make this an uncommon 20th century piece, that if there is another similar example it could then be easily matched and identified.  Many thanks!!

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