Old Maybe Kangxi lidded Jars

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I put these on your site several years ago, Im putting them on now because of the seam shown inside which is about 5.08 cm from the bottom up, these small jars are 22.8 cm tall from the bottom to the top of the lid, and the other jar dose not have a visible seem, I do not think these are fake because the lady I got them from made trips  to China back in the 80's and brought Porcelain Antiques and sold some in her antique Store, these were in her personal collection, unfortunately she and here husband are no longer with us.

[Stan]

Two more photo's to view.

[Stan]

Here are the last two photo's to view.

[peterp]

Hi Stan, there you got me ... :)
I will have to go through my books and reference materials with this.
The reason is simple, I know this as a Kangxi decoration, but the jar shapes seem to be of a late Ming type. A leaf mark would point to Kangxi, though.
I will try to find out if this decoration existed already in the late Ming dynasty, and when the leaf mark appeared at the earliest actually, and if this jar shape was still manufactured in the early Qing dynasty.
It could be 'transitional period', but the mark...I'm also a bit surprised at the presence of a mark on such a rough piece of porcelain. Whichever it is, the jars are most likely from the 1600s.

[Stan]

That would be cool.

[peterp]

Hi again. I have a few booklets showing mostly lower quality BW porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Also checked Chinese mark books and read up on the origin of the leaf mark. Found only explanations referring to a leaf decoration of the Shunzhi reign. In Chinese literature the leaf of the Wutong tree is representing autumn, and appears frequently on certain dishes of the Shunzhi reign. This is a bit paradox, because the leaf decoration may have been used  as a representation of the fall (demise) of the Ming dynasty.
This is probably the origin of its use, but the mark itself is usually attributed to the Kangxi reign, as it was mostly used then. I could not find it on earlier porcelain.

The decoration itself is a variation of an earlier (Ming dynasty) decoration that was apparently used in the Qing dynasty too, but the jar shape should be late Ming as I assumed. I would prefer to call this a transitional period item, late Ming to early Qing, but all leaf marks seem to be attributed to Kangxi.As I could only find the leaf as the main decoration on top of dishes, so be it...early Qing or Kangxi, probably, despite the late Ming shape. But 16th century or 'early' Kangxi reign is more likely, in my opinion.

[Stan]

Thank you Peter, that is great news, I suspected they might be Kangxi, but the possibility that it could be Shunzhi or even Transitional period is great news. thanks so much.