Featured Old japanese vase, marked on bottom

Hello,

i'd like to ID and date this amazing vase,

H cm 21
Width cm 20

marked on bottom

Thanks for your time

Gianluca

 

I have no expertise here, but it makes me think of Satsuma items. Although searching Google for "satsuma vase" doesn't bring up vases like yours, so I may be totally off base.

 

It's Chinese. Look on gotheborg under Chinese marks for Chenghua Nian Zhi.

 

The horses are portrayed with pretty comical features.....is that normal?????

 

Yours appears to be a ginger jar that has lost its lid. The crazing is typical of recent Chinese decorative imports. An internet image search for "China," "Ginger Jar," and "Mounted Warrior" will bring up lots of similar. Many of them are erroneously described as vintage or antique.

Debora

 

Hello thanks to everyone for the info. So this is a chinese ginger jar marked Chenghua Nian Zhi.
Which is the related dating please?
Thanks a lot for your time
Gianluca

 

recent...fits.

 

I'm with the others, a recently manufactured, incomplete Chinese ginger jar, which may never have contained ginger.
Very attractive decoration, handpainted with a historic scene, but not top quality. It has countless brothers and sisters.

Most Chinese ceramics are recent, often suggesting an older style. It is a minefield.

 

Hello,
No excuse me,
I've the lid but it's highly broken I was planning to throw it but maybe should I keep it on the jar ?
Another question please, I've checked gotheborg marks, but about ChenghuaNian Zhi I've found brown and blue marks only Could you please explain me why this is red instead ?
Many thanks

 

No, it does nothing for the value, probably even lowers it. Without the lid you can sell the jar as home decoration.

The link was just meant to show what a Chenghua Nian Zhi mark looked like. Your manufacturer used a different colour, that is all it is.

Chenghua Nian Zhi means 'made during the period of Chenghua'. Chenghua was a Chinese emperor who reigned from 1465-1487, but this is definitely not the period it was made in.
Chinese ceramics are often marked with the mark of an earlier period, either as a reference to a great period in history, or intended to fake. In this case the mark means nothing. That is often the case with Chinese marks.

 

Ahhhh i got it, many thanks for your explanation, I learned something precious today.

 

Pleasure, Gianluca. The fact that Chinese marks often mean nothing at all with regards to the period or value is indeed precious knowledge. I think most 'Chinese Imperial mark' questions here are about these recent marks, also called 'apocryphal marks'.

Chinese ceramics are a science, really. There are so many little details to consider.
If you don't know much about the subject, it is best to buy something only if you like it, it is undamaged, and you think the price is good for a recent, second-hand piece. Even if you think it could be antique.
And you can always ask here.

 

I'm gonna say 70's by the way the honeycomb appearance is.

 

Hi an update.

The catawiki staff suggested me the dating between 1900-1920,
referring to the gotheborg mark Chenghua Nian Zhi - "Chenghua Period Made". Honorary mark on Chinese export, ca. 1900-1920.

 

Which auction, Gianluca? Not all Catawiki auctioneers are knowledgeable, and you could have a problem with the buyer.
You have been lucky with Leonor, she is good. But frankly I have stopped sending messages about serpentine and Peking glass listed as jade, 1980s Spanish tourist fans listed as highly collectible antique Duvelleroy fans, etc, etc.
Just yesterday I saw a rusty Moroccan tourist koummya (dagger) listed as a 19th century Javanese keris. It didn't make the reserve price, for very obvious reasons, so it will surface again in a next auction.

One of the reasons I still bid on Catawiki, is that some wrongly listed items are actually worth more than the 'expert' thinks.

 

Asian antiques.
Yes you're right I take your point.
Sometime they also modify badly title and or description, ruining totally the interest of the item on sell.
Remember that large Satsuma vase with warriors and flowers ?
They modify everything and I sold for 45 euro only.
While I was packaging it for the lucky buyer I felt to cry.
I ask them, before setting a RV to suggest me which public estimate they will apply, do that I can set then a fair rv.
You know what they did?
Instead answering they approved it directly not allowing me to set a RV.!!!
45 euro for a real Satsuma of half meter.

 

There are several auctioneers for Asian antiques. I sent several messages to two of them, they corrected the listing every time, but it is just too much hassle. Besides, they're getting paid, I'm not.
They never helped me when I reported a stolen item which was listed in their auction, though.

That is a pity. But at least the Libyan salha sold for a good price.

 

Yeah ;-)

Do you want to laugh?
You already know that my sector is numismatics and philately.
Ok, I put on catawiki a very rare Portuguese coin, of the seventeenth century, in silver, with a rarity index 97/100, whose catalog value is about € 600- € 800, for a market value of about € 200- € 300.
The "experts" of catawiki have disapproved it !!! With the following explanation:

"these coins are worth between 5 and 20 euros"
I laughed a lot, then I contacted catawiki's support by sending them a message that roughly says this:
hello, I do not know if your experts really read the title and description, or if they approve or disapprove of their mood.
Today a coin with a rarity index 97/100, whose photo was given from me to Numista (I often help Numista to catalog rare coins by providing my photos) which is cataloged in VF € 600 and XF € 800, it has been disapproved valorizing it between € 5 and € 20. I urge you to send my message to the experts, who surely, given their great competence, must have made a serious distraction error. Thank you, Sincerely, etc.
And I entered the lot again.
After a few hours ...... your lot has been approved !!!!
I sold the coin for over € 400.
Comment: they do not apologize, they do not communicate, and they often make mistakes.
How many times have we entered lots that have been regularly disapproved?
In practice, I think these "experts" have too much "decision-making power" because then to lose is both the seller and the Catawiki platform!
I believe that Catawiki should introduce a sort of "supervision" that deeply accepts the complaints of a seller when the expert erroneously errs.
If they continue like this it will end up that they will level at the same squalor of Ebay.

 

In some respects they are already there.
It is such a shame for those experts that are good, they really know their stuff, but the others lower the standard.