Unknown He XianGu porcelain

[lechaise]

HI, I have a jug with two cups and saucers. The cups and sauers are different sizes and the marks are not consistent throughout even though they are clearly of the same design. Has anyone any idea on possible date or manufacturer? I understand the figure might be of he xian gu, that's as far as I've got so far.

[peterp]

Is this the bottom of the cup pictured?  The picture is not detailed enough to show if it is hand-painted or not, but the mark looks printed. The spaces at intervals are a telltale sign of transfer printing or a similar printing method. When manually painted, the cup would be rotated on the turntable while the brush or painting tool is held fixed. As the brush dispenses color continually until there is none, it is unlikely that there are such intermittent lines. Please note that there are also some printed wares now showing designs of early export wares like this. You should show the whole bottom, including foot rim, and a closeup picture of a part of the decoration. It is better to evaluate that way, if the decoration is also printed or not. Again, with brush painting it would possible to see lighter and darker areas under a magnifier, while with printing the blue color is likely uniform all over.

[MythicalFoxes]

as user peterp said, the illustrations are printed. this ware comes from The Netherlands and most probably the place Maastricht, from the Mosa porcelain factory. from around 1920's or more recent. the illustrations are brought on by some kind of print technique and the mark on the base is supposed to be the Yu mark that was also used during the Kangxi period, the illustrations are also based on the illustrations from Kangxi period porcelain. also known as the Long Eliza pattern.

if you google "lange lijs maastricht" which translates to "long eliza maastricht" you will a lot of similar objects when you look at the pictures. there is a lot of it around here. i live in the netherlands myself and you see it laying in the thrift shops often here.

[peterp]

So you have found it. Just to clarify this for future 'finds', transfer printed porcelain did not appear in China before the 20th century, and it was probably never made in numbers  before the second half of the 20th century. Therefore, the conclusion usually has to be that it was either not made in China or very late.
The other thing is the mark, I do not know what you mean with Yu mark, but there is no Chinese mark shaped like a roman letter, so that by itself is also a sign that it was not made in China.  :)

[Hmm]

I think it is supposed to resemble the character ?.  Just a badly printed one.  I noticed after googling 'lange lijs maastricht' that several photos had the character ? on it. 

[peterp]

Ah, got it, that is well possible.

[MythicalFoxes]

maybe i am mistaken about the use of it on Kangxi period ware. maybe some rare pieces but from my understanding it could be used during the Qing dynasty Ming or earlier. Yu meaning "Jade" what supposedly means Jade ware. a tleast thats what i have read about it.

the picture comes from www.patergratiaorientalart.com/home/1407

and to clarify, this is what i think it most probably is. could be wrong but the mark on Mosa porcelain is a simplified Yu mark from what i always thought.

[MythicalFoxes]

`Sorry didnt notice that user Hmm was saying the same thing. he indeed is right about what he said. its the same mark i believe