Pair of export Vases

[ssbill]

These types of vases are quite common in the west but it's the first time I've seen one with a mark. I am not sure what mark it is.

[peterp]

Hongxian is the mark used by the usurper Yuan Shi-kai, when he tried to make himself emperor after the Qing dynasty was defunct. But real Hongxian would be of better quality at the bottom. As the Hongxian period endured only a few months porcelain items with this mark are usually thought to have been mostly made later and is attributed to the repulbic period.