Rust Red & Cobalt Snuff Bottle - 4 Character Mark?

Started by Stillwaters, Jun 29, 2014, 06:22:20

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Stillwaters

I just picked up a collection of 6 of these porcelain snuff bottles, I've spent a couple days on these two marks and I can't pin them down 100%. Found a couple that are close but 1 character off or so. Its driving me nuts! Anyone know what they are?

Stan

Hi Stillwaters, the first bottle says Made during the Chenghua reign, 1465 to 87 and the mark on the other bottle says Jade Trinket, Kangxi to Qianlong

peterp

To be more exact, there is a Chenghua mark, but it is apocryphal. Snuff bottles were introduced into China during the Kangxi reign, so there are not Ming snuff bottles...that is what Stan means, in effect.
"Wan Yu" - literally, the first character means "play", the second means jade (so perhaps playing with Jade). Originally, in Chinese "Yu" also had the meaning of "precious object", not necessarily made of this specific stone. The mark also appears on other porcelain items.

Stillwaters

Ah ha, thank you Stan and Peter. I know that most of these marks are apocryphal, but I like to figure them out anyway. I think I remember reading that they have *some* meaning? I'm pretty sure these six are late Qing, 19th century. I was just looking at some period Qianlong museum snuff bottles, wow...