A pair of republican vases.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, the auctioneer said that these vases are from the republican period 1912 to 1949 they are all hand drawn and painted, the height is 40.6 cm the pair are reverse paintings, there is a couple things I would like to point out, one is the bottom foot is like bulged out and the other is like a stipple affect in the glaze, not on the inside just the outside, there is writing on the vase and I think there might be a date, I tried to find the date using your sicklical calendar but the characters I can not read, the detail is very good on these vases, please let me know if you can find a date or the maker, thanks peter, I will post 16 photos.

[Stan]

Here are four more photo's.

[Stan]

Four more photo's.

[Stan]

Last set of photo's.

[peterp]

Hi Stan,
This is Qianjiang style painting.  The handwriting is difficult to read.
The second character of the cyclical year is too modified to be sure. We have come up with two possible characters. They amount to the years 1868  1898  or 1928.

The artisan is Xu Shan-qin. Her birth and death years are unknown. Her most active period was in the early Guangxu reign. I found an item dated as early as 5th year of Tongzhi (1867). Thus if the above date would be 1928, she would have had already a fair age.

I cannot read the text on the vase to verify if it is the signed artisan's work or someone doing it after or in the artisan's style. Sometimes, with Qianjiang, it is mentioned that a work was a copy or made after the work of so-and-so.

The URL tinyurl.com/l3wl45g should show you some of her works. Please note the eyes, they are different from those on your vases. You know what that might mean, but sometimes painters changed style suddenly, in their life, and some painted differently when they were young and older.

[Stan]

Thanks peter.

[Stan]

Hi again Peter, is the hair on the women here a 19th century style or 20th century?

[peterp]

The woman working at the embroidery has a hair style of the 19th century, so seems the one behind. The others would be 20th century, I would think. But this was a time of changes, when old things were changing and new ones were had not firmly settled in yet. Unlike government changes, there would not have been a clear break between styles in fashion.
The type of hair style of the seated woman would have been normal in the Qing dynasty for women of the non-working classes.

Note:
The only abrupt change of hair style I know of was the change to the pigtail by men, at the beginning of the Qing dynasty. The Manchus seem to have forced all men to change to it by threat of death, and those who did not change were probably considered remnants of the Ming.

[Stan]

Good information, thanks Peter.

[Stan]

I think we can rule out 1868 and 1898 and so 1928 looks like a possibility, I would like to point out a couple of things, the first is the bottom foot is rounded or bulged at the bottom and the second is a stipple like finish on the outside of the vase, I am not sure that there was such a finish in 1928 it almost looks like it could have been sprayed on thick to cause such a finish, have you ever seen a finish like this on republic porcelain? and the bulge at the bottom could that be from this period, I looked at Christies and did see a vase from the republican period with a bottom like this but I could not get a close up picture to view details, like you mentioned if this was authentic she would have been in her 80s or 90s.

[Stan]

I forgot to mention that the reason I bought these was because the inside of the vases look like they are from that period, there are good signs of age inside the vases and not to mention that the auctioneer auctioned them as republic vases,

[peterp]

Hi Stan, you are in a better position to check on the nature of glaze and colors used in the decoration. The shape of the base is indeed something that is unusual, at least for the early 20th century, but it still could be republic. The style and content of the decoration (the people) looks all as if they could be early republic, but such a base would have been unusual then. The age of the artisan would have been another unlikely factor.
In my opinion this might be an imitation; much of the handwriting is difficult to read and I am not sure if it is mentioned that a work of the named artisan was copied or not. This handwriting is difficult for me.. Sometimes it is mentioned, sometimes not.

By the way, did they say "republic vases" or "in the style of", or similar at the auction?
I am sure you are aware of the difference.

[Stan]

At the auction it was listed as a pair of republic vases, it did not say republic style, but this type of glaze I have seen before but I just assumed that it was new because a finish like this was either sprayed or put on with a roller of some kind to give it that Orange peel look or stipple, I am not familiar with that type of finish.

[peterp]

Stan, I would be careful with the word "republic" for dating anyway. This is not a fixed period. There are different interpretations. Those who recognize the PRC are usually setting its end at 1949, while those who recognize the ROC will tell you that we still have the republic. But, considering that the PRC still uses the "R"epublic in its naming it "might" be that this is 'used' or confused in a more favourable way for dating by some.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, I will use your words of caution.