Featured What is this rarity?

Just for fun, I’ve removed the mark from the photo on this piece. I’ve posted the same on the British Pottery group on Facebook.I’m listing on eBay next week.

I know exactly what it is and when it was made but it’s a very rare and interesting piece. The V&A has another and one was sold by Sotheby’s in the 1970s.

So, where was it made, what type of ceramic is it and what’s the date?

I will post the mark later this afternoon (UK).

 

That's drop dead gorgeous. Definitely from the ka-ching ka-ching era.

 

It's a Chinese canton style jug, the upper half is decorated in the rose mandarin form and the lower half in the rose canton form. The body will be porcelain and the blanks were often from the kilns at Jingdezhen and then decorated in Canton. The sprigging on the handle, the gold ground infill, the flatness of the applied enamel and the foot suggest to me it is a 20th century example, probably inter-war period.

edit to add, marks on this type of item are usually apocryphal so shouldn't be taken as a guide to age.

 

Interesting and exactly what I would have thought without seeing the mark. But not right.

 

You cruel man.
It is a beauty, John.

 

Liverpool.

 

I wouldn't have thought Liverpool Chinoiserie, but then I haven't seen much of it. The ones I have seen were not as higly decorated, just the figures.
Do you know of a site maybe?

 

I will give you a clue. It is not porcelain or bone china. It is antique.

 

I did think the chipped bits looked a bit dark.
But I will leave the puzzle to the others, my head isn't up to thinking too much.

 

That is interesting, the cues which suggest 20th century Chinese look are perhaps the anomalies then. This shows the difficulties from working just from an image. This is what I see visually from the images, being unable to hold it of course they may not be correct:

It appears slip moulded rather than potted
The enamels appear very flat (ie not raised or textured)
It has been fired with a white glaze before being decorated
The body gold looks softly applied rather like you see on Noritake (perhaps it is not gold, just looks like it from the image)
The rim has yellow paint not gilt
It has kiln dust in the foot
It appears to be hand coloured over a transfer print outline

 

Famille Rose Yongzheng period (1723-1735) ?

 

No.

 

looks like ironstone

 

Good call, Laura.

Masons Ironstone?

 

Getting warmer.

 

I know Masons did some chinoiserie patterns. The colors seem quite vibrant. Just not sure.

 

Best Answer!



http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O163339/jug-e-c-challinor/jug-e--c/

 

I need help

Has solved the puzzle.



Here is some of my planned eBay listing plus the mark and a link to the V&A

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O163339/jug-e-c-challinor/jug-e--c/



"
it is an ironstone ewer made in Fenton Staffordshire c1862 by E & C Challinor. But the decoration is not at all English. It is clearly Cantonese in style and finely hand painted in famille rose enamels. It is a stunning piece on its own but its fascinating background makes it a wonderful talking point. I have researched the jug extensively and found a smaller version in the Victoria and Albert museum collection reference 0163339. That jug appeared in the exhibition Passion for Porcelain: masterpieces of ceramics from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum catalogue p.37 and is discussed in D.S. Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, p.32.


Howard suggests on that page that the jug was made in England and shipped to China for decoration as, following the TaiPing Rebellion in 1853, the kilns were not rebuilt until 1864 and it made commercial sense to temporarily decorate English ironstone in Canton for onward sale to the Australian market rather than buy the whole product in China. Alternatively Challinor may have been trying to compete with Worcester who employed a Chinese decorator Po Hing whose work turns up at auction from time to time. A leading auction house's ceramics expert suggested to me that Challinor may have used a similar Chinese immigrant as he considered it would have been too expensive to ship ironstone to China and back. (Although the Australian market makes more sense). It is not in Po Hing's hand.


The V&A takes the line that it was decorated in Canton.


Whichever the correct answer, it is highly unlikely that you will find another soon. It is a true rarity. The ewer discussed in Howard's book was sold at Sotheby's in June 1972."