Chinese porcelain statue

[Stan]

Hi Peter, here is another item I purchased at the antique store, It is a Chinese statue, I took these photos under fluorescent lighting so there not the greatest pictures, not very good weather here in Oregon, I shined a light in the holes on the bottom and there are finger prints and marks left by hand molding also it looks like it might have been wood that was used to heat the kiln because it looks like it was burnt and looks like it was in a fire, there is a mark on the bottom I could not find any marks in my books so it might be early 20th century, If you could read the mark and let me know how old you think it might be great, thanks.

[Stan]

Here are four more photo's to view.

[Stan]

Here is a photo of the bottom.

[Stan]

Here is a photo of the mark, thanks for viewing.

[peterp]

Hi Stan,
The pictures 6.jpg and 8.jpg seem to be decorations made in the second half of the 20th century (in my view). Not sure what you mean with "burnt" and "in a fire", but the black colored areas are no sign of this, I think. There is no reason why porcelain should get this color during firing.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I have heard of the use of wood to heat the kiln,  and there would be signs from the smoke and wood, I have never seen one so seeing smoke and what looks like burnt particles of wood seemed likely that it could have been wood heated, I agree with the decoration and the colors also look like chemical colors, if this is a fake it is one of the best fakes I have seen, could it be from the republic period, the faces are realistic and of good quality, it is hand moulded and hand painted, I paid $525.00 and I was told it is an antique could you tell what the mark is.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I took better pictures, this might help in determining age, it looks like it could be republic 1912 - 1949.

[Stan]

Here are more photo's.

[Stan]

Here is the last set of photo's, the one is showing the hole in the bottom and what you are looking at is the way the head is fastened to the body, it looks like the head was hollowed out also the gold is the color you want to see on an older piece in my opinion, I hope that the mark on the bottom could possibly narrow it down to age, thanks peter for all your help, the antique dealer said this came out of his personal collection.

[peterp]

Thanks for the additional pictures. In the last set the mark is clear, and the bottom looks a bit more natural, although it is unusual to have it all orange. Also, with figurines of the late Qing or early republic period I would expect to see the impressed thread pattern of a cloth, that was placed underneath before firing.
The mark is ???? ?Made by Xiang Shao Qing).
The floral patterns on a green and red background, respectively are very typical for the late republic to late 20th century period. You should be aware that such figurines are not plenty in the Qing dynasty. They only became popular in the 20th century, and were made in large quantities in the later 20th century.

If the smoke would settle on an item in the kiln, it does this on the glaze, not on the bottom. The only thing that could cause this in the kiln, would be if there was some combustible matter there. But the use of saggars etc. would have prevented flying debris anyway.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter for your expertise.

[Stan]

Peter there is a bit of a pattern on the bottom that looks like it could have been cloth, would the cloth burn up during the firing, if so could that be what appears to be burnt marks and smoke inside the statue?

[Stan]

I took some closeups of the bottom showing the cloth like pattern and one of the inside showing what appears to be maybe smoke residual.

[Stan]

BTW, the orange color on the bottom looks like it was painted on.

[peterp]

It looks to me like an iron wash, if you know what that is. Otherwise, the orange color would be hardly covering the whole bottom. But this was not normally done on republic or earlier porcelains.