Featured need information on 3 little cups

These would have been purchased in Jakarta when my parents lived there in the 1980's. My mother went daily to the local flea market looking for antiques. Are they tea cups. I am interested in info on age, use and any thing else you may know. Thank you for letting me pick your brains.

 

Saki or tea, am not sure if there is a difference. I reposted your picture with your fingers so that others can easily see the size.

 

Thank you. I found another very similar online saying they are from the Qing Dynasty which seems about right. But early or late in the dynasty ?

 

I agree. These are typical of the ware the Chinese made for the Asian market.
My guess is mid-late Qing period, but maybe our resident Peranakan ceramics specialist @Ken Yap can give a more definite age.

I'd say tea or coffee cups. I can see the good people of Jakarta drinking either jasmine tea or 'kopi tubruk' (Indonesian coffee) from these.
Mind you, they could be used to drink 'arak'. Not sake though, that is Japanese, not Indonesian.

 

Thank you for the information and confirmation. I have some more dishes my mom acquired in Jarkarta that I am going to post. Hope no one minds. My father worked for Stanvac and the company hired house hold help while they were there so my mom had nothing to do but shop the flea market daily. The end result was a marvelous collection and these are some of the less desirable and none of us have any more room.

 

Terrible!
Jakarta is a city where many cultures come together. In fact the locals, called the Betawi, are mostly descendants of slaves from all over Asia, with some European mixed in. They have a very specific culture, different from the surrounding Sundanese.

 

Thanks for the info. My late father would have enjoyed that tidbit. My mother is still alive but mentally not capable of telling me much about these lesser pieces which were stored for the past 40 years in closets and in some cases on top of cabinets. She would have known all about them. Her finer pieces I will share are on full display. They had two night watchmen. My dad said when he would get up in the middle of the night if he looked out the "window" the whole yard would be covered with people sleeping. He never minded. It was a safe place for what he assumed were family members or homeless.

 

And extra people to alert him if strangers tried to enter. They would have protected the property they regarded as home.

 

Most assured. My parents were well liked. My dad was appalled by the condition of the company school for the Indonesian employees children. He used his discretionary funds and his own money to improve the conditions . When he retired they gave him a huge party and when they got their shipment back in the US it was filled with elaborate native gifts. We have those as well to fill our houses!

 

Wonderful!

 

Kitchen Qing i think they call these.

 

As far as I know Kitchen Qing is used for stoneware and pottery. These cuties look porcelain to me.
In Indonesia they could fall into the category of Batik Ware, although some people only use that term for ceramics with blue splashes.

 

Hi Aj,

I will use a quote from Gothenborg: They do include porcelain too. It is a Mayalsian term so may not be so relevant but generally used to cover any chinese export pottery to south east asia

Kitchen Qing
The Malaccan term usually applied to every day porcelain used there by the common people; mostly provincial blue and white 19th century Chinese export dishes and bowls with simplified decorati

 

thank you all . My information file is growing! I have a file marked Antiquers Tidbits were I store all the tidbits i learn. More info just added!

 

Thank you, AJ

 

Yes, it can be confusing when you use terms from one region in another, a bit like speaking a language in the wrong country. But it is Chinese export ware for the Asian market just the same, whatever term you use.
As I said before, this could be regarded as batik ware in Java, although it may not be 'batik' enough for some.

 

Talk about language confusion, I know why I thought of stoneware before.
In Dutch we have a term for Chinese export stoneware, 'boerenming' (as in Ming dynasty). It was also intended for the Asian market, and it is also a type of Provincial ware. Boerenming became popular in Asia during the Ming dynasty, but was still made during the Qing period.

 

Boren Ming which is rural provincial Ming era earthenware pottery. Gotch, now that is a whole new term for me. Totally never knew that it existed. Thanks Aj.

Kitchen Qing is also a very useful term and please I hope no one takes this as Snobbery as it is not, Kitchen Qing is useful as it helps to catagorise Chinese -western exports from Chinese -South East Asian exports. This is useful as the market is geared toward western exports as they were made to a much higher quality due the money that was available from the west and the desrie for high quality porcelain. The more provincial ware was more pragmatic as a utility and had no requirement to be high quality. I personally like it because it requires doing less research and less analysis. I like some kitchen qing and many rice bowls fall into that catagory and some are colectable and is most likely the reason rice bowls never took off for collectors. However i do not want to study every pot ever made in china.

 

You'd be surprised. The only reason why it requires less research is because less is known about it.
Just like Martaban jars, they go back over a thousand years (or more), and the difference between a 9th century Martaban and an 18th century one can be very difficult to see in some cases.

I like Chinese-Asian export ware because of its 'folksy' charm and its long history in a region I am very interested in. It is connected with the folklore and traditions of South and Southeast Asia, even with its magic in some cases.