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Hello, Can someone please give me an approx date on this porcelain planter? Thank you! David.

This probable Chinese narcissus tray with sgraffito decoration and faux stamped mark of Guangxu (1875-1908) bears some evidence of being a contemporary blank that was finished by a porcelain ornamentation factory; e.g., it appears to have been given a secondary coat of thick unctuous white glaze that was ill-suited to the overlying pink ground, and which turned runny enough in the kiln to require levigation of the feet but still failed to vitrify sufficiently to prevent it from fritting profusely off the white beneath. This issue probably wouldn't have occurred if the piece had been finished at Jingdezhen, the usual source of such blanks.

Please see the link for a 2013 discussion between MikeOz and me of the mark on a lidded bowl with decoration of plums on a pink sgraffito ground. The bowl (images below) had been donated to a museum at Ningbo, a coastal city south of Shanghai, in China's Zhejiang Province. The item, bearing an unusual mark, made a large-enough splash in local papers and online to make me speculate that it might have been the inspiration for your narcissus tray.

Best regards,

Bill H.



URL Title :Plum Bowl

Thank you very much Bill H. for replying to my recent queries! David.

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