Big ? a warming dish maybe.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I purchased this from my Neighbor, he seems to think that it is late 19th century, one thing is for sure it is a complete set with no chips or cracks, I thought that was good, items of this sort always have broken lids or broken insert, I believe that this is Chinese Export porcelain, the mark looks a little worn to identify but maybe there is enough left for you to identify , this worming dish is 15.24 cm wide and 14.605 cm high to the top of the handle, there is also 2 little holders on each side for a wire to be use as a hanger, I have never seen a dish like this before so I have no idea of age, but it dose look old, I am posting 18 photo's, because there are three sections the bot, insert, and lid, thank you for your expert opinion.

[Stan]

Here are more photo's to view.

[Stan]

More photo's to view.

[Stan]

More photo's to view.

[Stan]

Last set of photo's, thanks for viewing, looking forward to your comments.

[peterp]

Yes, could be late Qing dynasty, but whether 19th century or the remaining 11 years is impossible to tell.
There is a private manufacturers mark. Maybe Shelley can read it? I do not get the third character.
That "CHINA" was used makes it likely that it is export porcelain for America, the mark was probably not used before the mid 1880s until around 1920; so you have a usable time frame.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, do you know if this would this be a part of a dinner set or is it something completely separate?

[peterp]

There is no way to know. Maybe the person you bought it from knows?

[shelley Kong]

The two characters on the right column are the name and those on the left mean "made, manufactured" I think.

[peterp]

Shelley, I do not think it says ?? , if it is that what you meant.  Normally it is either ? or ?.  Usually, the character is part of the name with shops or manufacturers. 

[shelley Kong]

Or the third character means "supervised" I speak Cantonese so don't know how it is pronounced in Mandarin. The chop is too smudgy to tell exactly. I 'm just guessing!

[Stan]

Shelly do you think it was written in Mandarin.

[shelley Kong]

Stan,
Mandarin commonly means a pronounciation. So we speak Mandarin but we write either traditional or simplified Chinese. Well, Chinese is complicated, even for the Chinese. In Taiwan, we write traditional Chinese and speak Mandarin. In Hong Kong we write traditional Chinese and speak the Cantonese dialect. In Mainland China, we write simplified Chinese and speak the common language, very similar to Mandarin.

[Stan]

Thanks Shelly,

[Stan]

One thing I would like to point out is that without the insert the lid dose not fit right, with out the insert it would sit on top and the appearance would look right but it could fall off very easily, with the insert it fits perfect and the lid has something to hold it in place, I have seen several jars where at the top inside is unglazed and looks like either a lid or insert and lid could be missing, this is the first on I have seen complete, I have not been able to find another example to compare, any help would be appreciated.